Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/43

Rh which was refused. He went to the house of the father, in company with the other surgeon, and tried all his art of rhetoric and persuasion, but in vain. When he became convinced that his object was unattainable, he was standing, said the relator ot this anecdote, with his back to the fire, and he put his hands into his pockets. “I saw,” continued the narrator, “by his countenance, that a storm was brewing in his mind. Mr. Hunter, however, gravely and calmly addressed the master of the house in the following manner: “Then, Sir, you will not permit the examination to be made.” It is impossible,” was the absurd reply. “Then, Sir,” said Mr. Hunter, “I heartily hope, that yourself, and all your family, nay, all your friends, may die of the same disease, and that no one may be able to afford any assistance;” and so saying, he departed. Such a wish could never, I am convinced, have originated in his benevolent mind; as indeed is manifested by the very terms of it, which involve the innocent with the offending. Temporary irritation alone incited him to adopt this mode of expressing his strong conviction of what it became