Page:The Hunterian Oration 1877.djvu/20

12 THE HUNTERIAN ORATION. physiologist he was quite unrivalled ; among the patho- logists of his time he was by far the first ; among the few geologists and students of vegetable physiology he was one, if not chief; and he was a great practical surgeon, surgeon to a large hospital, and holding for some years the largest practice in this town. In all these subjects at one time, no one but Hunter has ever been eminent and active.

And it is not only in the range but in the depth and thoroughness of his scientific work that he is distinguished. It is not possible now to tell, by any examples, the thoroughness of his scientific work. Let me say only, that in the whole range of subjects which I just now indicated there was not one which he did not study as completely as was possible ; not one in which he did not enlarge the area of enquiry far beyond that covered by those before him. In every department of the sciences of life he made investigations wholly original ; he observed and recorded facts past counting ; he discerned in his facts large general laws.

These notes concerning Hunter's work tell the chief characters of his mind ; massiveness and grandeur of design appear in all he did ; and in perfect harmony with these was the simplicity of his usual method of work. It was, mainly, the orderly accumulation of facts of every kind from every source, and the building of them up in the plainest inductions. If he had been an architect, he would have built huge pyramids, and every stone would have borne its own inscription, He knew nothing of logic or of the science of thought ; he used his natural mental powers, as with a natural instinct — used them with all his