Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/92

152 French Academicians came to the conclusion that they were, in all probability, the bones of elephants. From the different character of the jaw-bone, and other anatomical signs, Dr William Hunter, however, came to the conclusion that they did not belong to the elephant, but to an animal incognitum, probably the same as the mammoth of Siberia. Nor was this the only subject of natural history on which Dr Hunter exercised his ingenuity, for in a subsequent volume of the transactions, we find him offering his remarks on some bones found in the rock of Gibraltar, which he proves to have belonged to some quadruped. Further, we find an account published by him of the Nylghau, an Indian animal not before described. Thus, amidst the anxious duties of that department of the profession in which he excelled, we find his active mind leading him into investigations on subjects of natural history, which are eminently interesting to all who delight in examining into the mysteries, and beauties, and past history of the surrounding world.

In the year 1768, Dr William Hunter became fellow of the society of arts, and the same year at the institution of an academy of arts, he was appointed by his majesty professor of anatomy. His talents were now directed into a new sphere of action; in which he engaged with unabated ardour and zeal. He studied the adaptation of the expression of anatomy to sculpture and painting, and his observations are said to have been characterized by much originality and just critical acumen.

In January, 1781, he was unanimously elected successor to Dr John Fothergill, as president of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the interests of which institution he zealously promoted. In 1780, the Royal Medical Society of Paris elected him one of their foreign associates, and in 1782 he received a similar mark of distinction from the Royal Academy of Sciences in that city. Thus, in tracing the life of this eminent physician, we find honour upon honour conferred upon him, in acknowledgment of the essential services which he rendered to the cause of science. But his chef d'œuvre yet remains to be noticed; it was consummated in the invaluable "Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus," one of the most splendid medical works of the age in which he lived. It was commenced in 1751, but 'not completed until 1775, owing to the author's desire to render it as complete as possible. It contains a series of thirty-four folio plates, from superior drawings of subjects and preparations, executed by the first artists, exhibiting all the principal changes which occur during the nine months of pregnancy. Here we find the first representation that was given of the retroverted uterus, and the mernbrana decidua reflexa discovered by himself. He did not live however to complete the anatomical description of the figures, which his nephew the late lamented Dr Baillie did in 1794. He dedicated this valuable work to the king; and it needs only to be added, in testimony of merit, that notwithstanding the march of medical knowledge, it has not been superseded by any rival author. It remains now, and will go down to posterity, as a standard work complete in its designs, and admirable in its execution. But this was not the only service which Dr William Hunter rendered to the profession; it remains for us yet to record the circumstances under which he founded a museum which has justly called forth the admiration of every medical man by whom it has been visited. When Dr William Hunter began to reap the fruits of his professional skill and exertions, he determined on laying aside a fund from which he would derive support, if overtaken by the calamities of sickness, or the infirmities of age. This he very shortly accomplished : and it is said, that on one occasion he stated that having borrowed from this fund a sum to de-