Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/97

Rh combined with that of a cabinet maker;—and thence arose the report to which we have just alluded. His assistance could only have been very slight, and it being eventually impossible for Mr Buchanan to retrieve himself from his difficulties, he relinquished his business, and sought a livelihood by teaching music, besides which, he was appointed clerk to an Episcopal congregation. Thus the marriage of his sister proved so far, in a worldly sense, unfortunate; and the predictions of her relations were too truly verified. Her brother John soon became tired of witnessing embarrassments he could not relieve, and finding that his sister preferred grieving over her sorrows alone, to allowing him to be the constant witness of her grief, he returned to Long Calderwood, after an absence which had so far had a beneficial effect on him, that it weaned him from home, reconciled his mother to his absence, and in all probability suggested to him reflections and motives for future activity, which never otherwise might have occurred. It is no wonder that the village amusements to which he had been accustomed, now lost their wonted charms;—it is no wonder that he felt restless and anxious to enter on some useful occupation, for already he had witnessed what were the bitter fruits of idleness and dissipation. He had often heard of his brother William's success in London, and he now wrote to him requesting permission to pay him a visit, at the same time offering to assist him in his anatomical labours;—and in case these proposals were not accepted, he expressed a wish to go into the army.

His brother William returned a very kind answer to his letter, and gave him an invitation to visit him immediately, which he cheerfully accepted, and accompanied by a Mr Hamilton who was going there on business, they rode together on horseback, and in September, 1748, he arrived in London. About a fortnight before the winter session of lectures for that year, his brother, anxious to form some opinion of his talents for anatomy, gave him an arm to dissect the muscles, with some necessary instructions for his guidance, and the performance, we are informed, greatly exceeded expectation. William now gave him a dissection of a more difficult nature, an arm in which all the arteries were injected, and these as well as the muscles were to be exposed and preserved, his execution of this task gave his brother very great satisfaction, nor did he now hesitate to declare that he would soon become a good anatomist, and, furthermore, he promised that he should not want for employment. Here we may observe, that the manipulation in dissecting requires a species of tact, which, like many other acquirements, is best obtained in early life; and now under the instruction of his brother, and his assistant Mr Symonds, he had every opportunity for improvement, as all the dissections carried on in London, at this time were confined to that school.

In the summer of 1749, the celebrated Cheselden, at the request of Dr Hunter, permitted John to attend at the Chelsea hospital, where he had ample opportunities for studying by the sick-bed, the progress and modifications of disease. At this time surgical pathology was in a rude state; and, among other absurd doctrines, the progress of ulceration was held to be a solution of the solid parts into pus, or matter. When the mind, however young, enters fresh and vigorous into the field of inquiry, untrammelled by early prejudices, it is apt to observe phenomena in new relations, and to discover glimmerings of paths which lead to the knowledge of unsuspected truths. Such, at this time, we may consider to have been the state of John Hunter's mind ; acute in all its perceptions; discriminate in all its observations; and free to embrace fearlessly whatever new theories his reflections might suggest Here, therefore, in learning the first rudiments of surgery, he first began to suspect the validity of