Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/93

Rh fray some expenses of his museum, he felt very much dissatisfied and uneasy until it was replaced. His competency having been obtained, and his wealth continuing to accumulate, he formed a laudable design of founding a school of medicine, and for this purpose addressed a memorial to Mr Grenville, then minister, in which he requested the grant of a piece of ground in the Mews for the site of an anatomical theatre. He undertook to expend £7000 on the building, and to endow a professorship of anatomy in perpetuity; but the scheme did not meet the reception it deserved, and fell to the ground. It is said that the earl of Shelburne, afterwards in conversation with the learned doctor, expressed his approbation of the design, and desired his name to be put down as a subscriber for £1000. But Dr Hunter had now it would appear determined on other arrangements, having purchased a spot of ground in Great Windmill Street, which he determined to appropriate to the proposed use. He there built accordingly a house and anatomical theatre, and removed from Jermyn Street to these premises in 1770. Medical men engaged in active practice, who have a taste for the study of morbid anatomy, have little difficulty in obtaining specimens; and by his own exertions and those of his pupils, many of whom engaged zealously in the. cause, he soon succeeded in bringing together a vast number of morbid preparations, to augment the number of which he purchased numerous collections that were at various times exposed to sale in London. The taste for collecting, which all acquire who commence founding a museum, "increased by what it fed on," and he now, in addition to the anatomical specimens, sought to accumulate fossils, curious books, coins—in short, whatever might interest either the man of letters, the physician, the naturalist, or the antiquary. We are informed that in respect to books he became possessed of "the most magnificent treasure of Greek and Latin books that has been accumulated since the days of Mead;"—furthermore, Mr Combe, a learned friend of the doctor's, published a description of part of the coins in the collection, under the following title:—"Nummorum Veterum Populorum et Urbium qui in Museo Gulielmi Hunter asservantur, descriptio, figuris illustrata. In the preface to this volume, which is dedicated by Dr William Hunter to her majesty, some account is given of the progress of the collection, which had been accumulating since 1770, at an expense of upwards of £20,000. In 1781, a valuable addition to it was received, consisting of shells, corals, and other curious subjects of natural history, which .had been collected by the late Dr Fothergill, who gave directions by his will that his collection should be appraised after his death, and that Dr William Hunter should have the refusal of it at £500. This was accordingly done, and Dr Hunter purchased it eventually for £1200. To complete the history of this museum, we may here add, that on the death of Dr William Hunter, he bequeathed it, under the direction of trustees, for the use of his nephew Dr Matthew Baillie, and in case of his death to Mr Cruickshank, for the term of thirty years, at the expiration of which it was to be transmitted to the university of Glasgow. The sum of £8000 was furthermore left as a fund for the support and augmentation of the collection, and each of the trustees was left £20 per annum for the term of thirty years—that is, during the period that they would be executing the purposes of the will. Before the expiration of the period assigned, Dr Baillie removed the museum to Glasgow, where it at present is visited by all who take an interest in medical or general science.

We have followed Dr William Hunter through the chief and most remarkable events by which his life was characterized, and now pausing to contemplate his having arrived at the summit of his ambition,—honoured by the esteem of his sovereign, complimented by foreign academies, and consulted by persons of all ranks—with an independence of wealth which left in-