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HUNTER, WILLIAM (1718–1783)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 945 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUNTER, See also:WILLIAM (1718–1783) , See also:British physiologist and physician, the first See also:great teacher of See also:anatomy in See also:England, was See also:born on the 23rd of May 1718, at See also:East See also:Kilbride, See also:Lanark. He was the seventh See also:child of his parents, and an See also:elder See also:brother of the still more famous See also:John Hunter (q.v.). When fourteen years of See also:age, he was sent to the university of See also:Glasgow, where he studied for five years. He had originally been intended for the See also:church, but, scruples concerning subscription arising in his mind, he followed the See also:advice of his friend William See also:Cullen, and resolved to devote himself to physic. During 1737–1740 he resided with Cullen at See also:Hamilton, and then, to increase his medical knowledge before settling in See also:partnership with his friend, he spent the See also:winter of 1740—1741 at See also:Edinburgh. Thence he went to See also:London, where Dr See also:James See also:Douglas (1675-1742), an anatomist and obstetrician of some See also:note, to whom he had been recommended, engaged his services as a See also:tutor to his son and as a dissector, and assisted him to enter as a surgeon's See also:pupil at St See also:George's See also:Hospital and to procure the instruction of the anatomist See also:Frank Nicholls (r699-1778). When Dr Douglas died Hunter still continued to live with his See also:family. In 1746 he undertook, in See also:place of See also:Samuel See also:Sharp, the delivery, for a society of See also:naval practitioners, of a See also:series of lectures on operative See also:surgery, so satisfactorily that he was requested to include anatomy in his course. It was not See also:long before he attained considerable fame as a lecturer; for not only was his oratorical ability great, but he differed from his See also:con-temporaries in the fullness and thoroughness of his teaching, and in the care which he took to provide the best possible See also:practical illustrations of his discourses. We read that the See also:syllabus of See also:Edward Nourse (1701—1761), published in 1748, totem rem anatomicam complectens, comprised only twenty-three lectures, exclusive of a See also:short and defective " Syllabus Chirurgicus," and that at " one of the most reputable courses of anatomy in See also:Europe," which Hunter had himself attended, the See also:professor was obliged to demonstrate all the parts of the See also:body, except the nerves and vessels (shown in a foetus) and the bones, on a single dead subject, and for the explanation of the operations of surgery used a See also:dog! In 1747 Hunter became a member of the See also:Corporation of Surgeons. In the course of a tour through See also:Holland to See also:Paris with his pupil, J.

Douglas, in 1728, he visited See also:

Albinus at See also:Leiden, and inspected with admiration his injected preparations. By degrees Hunter renounced surgical for obstetric practice, in which he excelled. He was appointed a surgeonaccoucheur at the See also:Middlesex Hospital in 1748, and at the British Lying-in Hospital in the See also:year following. The degree of M.D. was conferred upon him by the university of Glasgow on the 24th of See also:October 1750. About the same See also:time he See also:left his old See also:abode at Mrs Douglas's, and settled as a physician in Jermyn See also:Street. He became a licentiate of the See also:College of Physicians on the 3oth of See also:September 1756. In 1762 he was consulted by See also:Queen See also:Charlotte, and in 1764 was made physician-extraordinary to her See also:Majesty. On the departure of his brother John for the See also:army, Hunter engaged as an assistant William Hewson (1739–1774), whom he subsequently admitted to partnership in his lectures. Hewson was succeeded in 1770 by W. C. See also:Cruikshank (1745–1800). Hunter was elected F.R.S. in 1767; F.S.A. in 1768, and third professor of anatomy to the Royal See also:Academy of Arts; and in 1780 and 1782 respectively an See also:associate of the Royal Medical Society and of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris.

During the closing ten years of his See also:

life his See also:health failed greatly. His last lecture, at the conclusion of which he fainted, was given, contrary to the remonstrances of See also:friends, only a few days before his See also:death, which took place in London on the 3oth of See also:March 1783. He was buried in the See also:rector's vault at St James's, Piccadilly. Hunter had in 1765 requested of the See also:prime See also:minister, George See also:Grenville, the See also:grant of a See also:plot of ground on which he might establish " a museum in London for the improvement of anatomy, surgery, and physics " (see " Papers " at end of his Two See also:Introductory Lectures, 1784), and had offered to expend on its erection £7000, and to endow in See also:perpetuity a professorship of anatomy in connexion with it. His application receiving no recognition, he after many months abandoned his See also:scheme, and built himself a See also:house, with lecture and dissecting-rooms, in Great See also:Windmill Street, whither he removed in 1770. In one See also:fine apartment in this house was accommodated his collection, comprising anatomical and pathological preparations, See also:ancient coins and medals, minerals, shells and See also:corals. His natural See also:history specimens were in See also:part a See also:purchase, for £1200, of the executors of his friend, Dr John See also:Fothergill (1712–1780). Hunter's whole collection, together with his fine library of See also:Greek and Latin See also:classics, and an endowment of £8000, by his will became, after the See also:lapse of twenty years, the See also:property of the university of Glasgow. Hunter was never married, and was a See also:man of frugal habits. Like his brother John, he was an See also:early riser, and a man of untiring See also:industry. He is described as being in his lectures, which were of two See also:hours' duration, " both See also:simple and profound, See also:minute in demonstration, and yet the See also:reverse of dry and tedious "; and his mode of introducing anecdotal illustrations of his topic was most happy. Lecturing was to him a See also:pleasure, and, not-withstanding his many professional distractions, he regularly continued it, because, as he said, he " conceived that a man may do infinitely -more See also:good to the public by teaching his See also:art than by practising it " (see " Memorial " appended to Introd.

Lect. p. 120). Hunter was the author of several contributions to the Medical Observations and Enquiries and the Philosophical Transactions. In his See also:

paper on the structure of cartilages and See also:joints, published in the latter In 1743, he anticipated what M. F. X. See also:Bichat sixty years after-wards wrote concerning the structure and arrangement of the synovial membranes. His Medical Commentaries (pt. i., 1762, supplemented 1764) contains, among other like See also:matter, details of his disputes with the Monros as to who first had successfully performed the injection of the tubuli testis (in which, however, both he and they had been forestalled by A. von See also:Haller in 1745), and as to who had discovered the true See also:office of the lymphatics, and also a discussion on the question whether he or See also:Percival! See also:Pott ought to be considered theearliest to have elucidated the nature of See also:hernia congenita, which, as a matter of fact, had been previously explained by Haller. In the Commentaries is exhibited Hunter's one weakness—an inordinate love of controversy. His impatience of See also:contradiction he averred to be a characteristic of anatomists, in whom he once jocularly condoned it, on the plea that " the passive submission of dead bodies " rendered the See also:crossing of their will the less bearable. His great See also:work, The Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus, exhibited in Figures, fol., was published in 1774.

His See also:

posthumous See also:works are Two Introductory Lectures (1784), and Anatomical Description of the human Gravid Uterus (1794), which was re-edited by Dr E. See also:Rigby in 1843. See Gent. Mag. liii. pt. 1, p. 364 (1783); S. F. See also:Simmons, An See also:Account of the Life of W. Hunter (1783) ; See also:Adams's and Ottley's Lives of J. Hunter; See also:Sir B. C. See also:Brodie, Hunterian Oration (1837) ; W.

Munk, The See also:

Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London, ii. 205 (1878). (F. H.

End of Article: HUNTER, WILLIAM (1718–1783)

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