Page:The Hunterian Oration 1832.djvu/16

12 —If I were to be asked, who had been the greatest man, that had ever adorned the useful and noble profession, to which we are devoted, I should have no hesitation in fixing upon John Hunter as meriting this glorious distinction, and as having individually done more for the promotion of medical science, than any other person of ancient, or modern times. Hippocrates, Sydenham, Pare, and Wiseman, may have been as faithful in the observation of the lessons of experience, and in studying, what may be called the surface of nature in relation to disease; but the genius of John Hunter took sometimes a deeper, and sometimes a loftier range. Not satisfied with a mere notice of symptoms—of the circumstances influencing the chances of death or recovery—he asked himself the reason of all that presented itself to his observation, inquiring minutely into every process, which the animal economy reveals, both in health and in disease. With this view, he traced the structure and mechanism of the various organs of life throughout the whole range of nature,