Page:The Hunterian Oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons on the 14th of February, 1834 (IA b31879792).pdf/14

10 full splendour, he came to London, by his own desire, to make trial of anatomy, under the auspices of his brother, then in high reputation as an anatomical teacher, and hoping to become his assistant, if he should prove himself competent to the task. This was in the autumn of 1748. The Doctor gave him an arm to dissect for the muscles, and finding the task performed particularly well, immediately predicted he would soon be a good anatomist. So rapid was his progress in anatomy, that he presided in the dissecting-room in the following season of 1749, and was admitted by his brother a partner in the anatomical lectures in 1755. He studied surgery at Chelsea Hospital, under CHESELDEN, in 1749, and became a pupil at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1751, two years after Porr had been elected surgeon. He began to attend St. George's Hospital in 1754, and was house-surgeon in 1756. He was appointed staff-surgeon in 1761, and was in actual service till 1763, when he quitted the army and settled in London. In 1768 he was chosen surgeon to St. George's Hospital, and held the situation till his death in 1793, being then sixty-five; the same age at which his brother, Dr. WILLIAM HUNTER, had died.

It thus appears that MR. HUNTER enjoyed such opportunities of gaining information as have fallen. to the lot of few. He learned anatomy under the most consummate anatomist of the age; one who, according to the unanimous report of his cotempo-