Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/98

158 the doctrines which were promulgated, which some few years afterwards, it vas his good fortune to combat, and overthrow.

In the succeeding season, -Mr Hunter was so far advanced in the knowledge of practical anatomy as to. relieve his brother from the duty of attending in the dissecting-room. This now became the scene of the younger brother's employment during the winter months, whilst William confined himself to delivering lectures in the theatre. In the summer he resumed his attendance at the Chelsea hospital, and in the following year, 1751, he became a pupil at St Bartholomew hospital, where he was generally present at the performance of the most remarkable operations. At this time Mr Pott was one of the senior surgeons at the latter institution, and no man operated more expertly, or lectured with better effect than he did ; and although his pathological doctrines were subsequently, and with justice, arraigned by his present pupil, his name is nowhere mentioned by him but with the highest respect.

In the year 1753, Mr Hunter entered as a gentleman commoner in St Mary's Hall, Oxford ; probably with the view of subsequently becoming a fellow of the College of Physicians. But his matriculation was not afterwards persevered in, and the following year he entered as surgeon's pupil at St George's hospital. His object in taking this step, which might appear to have been superfluous, is obvious. He desired to obtain the appointment of surgeon to some public hospital; and he well knew, that while his chance of success at Chelsea hospital was very remote, he was precluded from competing for the appointment at St Bartholomew's, from the circumstance of his not having served an apprenticeship to any surgeon of that hospital, a qualification expressly required by every candidate for that office. He accordingly calculated that the chances were more in his favour at St George's, where he hoped to obtain sufficient interest among the medical officers to facilitate his wishes. To this hospital he was, in two years afterwards, appointed house-surgeon. This, we may observe, is a temporary office, the person holding which may be regarded as a resident pupil, who resides in the house, and is expected to be always in readiness to attend to any accident that may be brought to the house, or may occur in the vicinity.

In the winter of 1755, he was admitted to a partnership in the lectures of his brother, a certain portion of the course being allotted to him, and he being required to lecture during the occasional absence of his colleague. Probably from the neglect of his early education he was little qualified to compete with his brother as a lecturer, a task he always performed with very great difficulty. For making dissections, and anatomical preparations, he was unrivalled in skill; and this was of no mean importance when we remember, that this art was at that time very little known, and that such exhibitions were of great utility during the public lecture. "Mr Hunter worked for ten years," says Sir Everard Home, "on human anatomy, during which period he made himself master of what was already known, as well as made some addition to that knowledge. He traced the ramifications of the olfactory nerves upon the membranes of the nose, and discovered the course of some of the branches of the fifth pair of nerves. In the gravid uterus, he traced the arteries of the uterus to their termination in the placenta. He was also the first who discovered the existence of the lymphatic vessels in birds." The difficulty of unraveling all the complex parts of the human frame, induced him to extend his inquiries, and examine into the structure of the inferior animals, nature having, as Dr Geoffrey St Hilaire has more recently demonstrated, preserved one type in the organization of all animate beings. He applied to the keeper of the tower, and the men who are the proprietors of the menageries of wild beasts, for the bodies of the animals which