Page:The Hunterian Oration, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons on the 14th of February, 1834 (IA b31879792).pdf/19

15 idea." Such was the modest confession of one who had examined the structure and actions of living beings more extensively than any other who has ever existed. Aware that memory cannot be trusted for retaining the endless details of researches so numerous and various, he invariably reduced every thing to writing. Thus he left behind him an immense mass of manuscripts, exhibiting an amount of mental and mechanical labour only less surprising than his museum. Among these were nine folio volumes, containing dissections of animals, and many minor bundles of papers on the same subject; a folio volume on the structure of vegetables; several volumes and other papers containing records of cases and dissections, with references to the preparations in his museum; and eighty-six lectures on surgery, which had been written out at full length, improved by various additions. and corrections from time to time. Of these precious documents, so important in the illustration of the museum, and so essential to the full display of MR. HUNTER'S labours and claims, in comparative anatomy, physiology, and pathology, unfortunately a large portion has been destroyed, including all the surgical lectures.

Thus his whole life was a series of incessant labour, or rather of delightful occupation; for it was spent in pursuits to which he was devoted, heart and soul; the only relaxation was that afforded by change of employment. When we con-