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 222 BRITISH PHYSICIANS, In the early part of his career he practised both surgery and obstetrics ; but he had always felt an aversion towards the former, and gradually con- fined himself to the latter pursuit. Dr. Douglas, his patron, had acquired reputation in this branch, and Hunter was also successively elected one of the accoucheurs to the Middlesex Hospital (1748), and to the British Lying-in Hospital (1749). Some other favourable circumstances combined to fix him. Smellie, although a man of merit, was unpleasing in his exterior and manners, and was unable to make his way amongst the refined or fastidious. The abilities of Hunter at least equalled those of Smellie, and his person and deportment gave him a decided advantage. Sir Richard Man- ningliam, one of the most eminent accoucheurs of the time, died about this period ; and Dr. Sandys, who divided with him the fashion of the day, re- tired into the country a few years after the com- mencement of Hunter's reputation. Sandys had been formerly professor of anatomy at Cambridge ; he was a most assiduous cultivator of that science, and formed a large collection of preparations illus- trative of it ; after his death it fell into the hands of Mr. Bromfield, and was finally sold to Dr. Hunter for two hundred pounds. In 1750 Hunter obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Glasgovi^, and about the same time quitted the roof of the Douglas family to reside in Jermyn Street. In 1 756 he became a licentiate of the College of Physi- cians. When the queen became pregnant in 1762, his advice was solicited ; and he was, two years afterwards, appointed physician extraordinary to