John Hunter—triumph and tragedy
1993; Elsevier BV; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/0741-5214(93)90004-6
ISSN1097-6809
Autores Tópico(s)Medical History and Innovations
ResumoIn 1962, as a guest of Dr. Jesse Thompson, I attended my first meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery. This marks my thirtieth consecutive meeting, and I have listened with admiration and respect to many presidential addresses. I am deeply honored now to be standing here before you as President of this great Society. This is a singularly important event in my life, and I am grateful to all of you for this honor. As I look at the seal of the Society for Vascular Surgery, there is John Hunter in the famous Reynolds portrait. Although I know he was the patron surgeon of the Royal College of Surgeons, and that he is acknowledged as the “founder of scientific surgery,” I realized that I knew little about him. I thought that many of my colleagues also were not aware of the scope of his contributions. At the third annual meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery held on June 5, 1949, Alfred Blalock was asked to produce a design for the certificate of membership.1Shumacker HB. The Society for Vascular Surgery, a history: 1945-1983.in: Society for Vascular Surgery, Manchester, Massachusetts1984: 267-269Google Scholar A constitution and bylaws were adopted at that time. Later, Henry Swan, Secretary of the Society in 1955, designed a membership certificate. He took a lithograph of the original portrait of John Hunter made by Sir Joshua Reynolds and placed it on the certificate (he had an etching in his office). In response to a request from Jim DeWeese in 1972, Dr. Swan explained that no separate seal had been devised but suggested that the portrait on the certificate could reasonably be considered as the official seal. I then turned to the Hunterian orations delivered annually before the Royal College of Surgeons on February 14, observing John Hunter's birthday. I realized that I had undertaken a formidable task, one described by Grey Turner in his oration given in 1949: “It is usually considered that for the appointed orator to bring anything of freshness to the memory of Hunter must now be an insuperable difficulty and that anyone who has the honor to be designated to fulfill the task may well be appalled at the prospect.”2Turner G. Hunterian oration 1945.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 1PubMed Google Scholar As part of my preparation, I had the opportunity to visit the Hunterian Museum, thanks to Sir Geoffrey Slaney. While there I had the invaluable advice and assistance of the Qvist curator, Miss Elizabeth Allen. After spending considerable time reading about John Hunter, I wanted to stand in the midst of his work and obtain if I could a feeling for the substance of this remarkable man. My visit to the museum left me humble and awed. When Hunter died there were 13,687 specimens in his museum, representing 40 years of work and an expenditure of £20,000.3Allen E. Summation of the history of the Hunterian Museum. Royal College of Surgeons, 1991Google Scholar The museum held 5000 preparations of normal structures and 2500 pathologic specimens. On May 10 and 11, 1941, the college and museum were struck by German bombs, and the invertebrate and instrument rooms were completely destroyed; there was heavy damage to the collection of comparative osteology, physiology, and pathology. The present museum opened in 1963 and has within it more than 3500 specimens as arranged by John Hunter. There are also 2500 physiological specimens. I was intimidated and overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that he had accomplished and wondered how it could have been done. His self-discipline must have been awesome. It is unfortunate that the first biography of John Hunter, by Jesse Foot, was a “deliberate attempt to denigrate a contemporary.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar It was prepared before Hunter's death, and the author is said to have received £400 for the writing. It is filled with inaccuracies; I intend to correct some of these as I proceed. John Hunter was the tenth and last child of John and Agnes Hunter of Long Calderwood. This was a farm estate in Lanarkshire near the village of East Kilbride, 7 miles from Glasgow. The local records give February 13, 1728, as his date of birth, but the Royal College of Surgeons observes February 14. His brother William, with whom he would later become associated and share fame in anatomic research, was 10 years older than John. Little is known of his childhood, but Hunter himself stated that he had very little interest in schoolbooks, and he preferred to observe natural history firsthand in the fields of his father's farm. He studied nature, observing the animals, birds, fishes, and plants and collecting and dissecting any dead specimens that he came across. As was to be his habit, he was interested in everything in nature. It is said that he was “difficult,” but all agreed that he had “neatness of hands and quickness of perception.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar Later he was to say, “It should be remembered that nothing in nature stands alone; but that every art and science has a relation to some other art or science, that it requires a knowledge of those others, as this connexion takes place, to enable us to become perfect in that which engages our particular attention.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar John Hunter's father, who was 65 years old when John was born, died when John was 13 years of age. His mother realized that he was not an apt student, although he had gone to school until he was 13 years old. At age 17 years he went to Glasgow to work with his brother-in-law, George Buchanan, who was a cabinetmaker. John watched the craftsmen and there learned the trade of wheelwright, but it held little interest for him despite his considerable manual dexterity; he was restless and within a few weeks decided to leave. Several biographers and some of the Hunterian orators have viewed this amorphous and ill-defined youth as an example of waywardness and laziness, but subsequent events proved this not to be the case.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar In fact, his insatiable curiosity and remarkable powers of observation and perseverance were not disturbed by the routine so prominent in the formal education of those years. One is reminded of a quote by Albert Einstein: “It is nothing short of a miracle that modern methods of teaching have not yet entirely strangled the sacred spirit of curiosity and inquiry, for this delicate plant needs freedom no less than stimulation.”5Einstein A. Quoted.in: Einstein, the life and times. Hodder and Stoughton, London1973: 25-26Google Scholar In September 1748 John's elder brother William, a physician and obstetrician, invited him to London to assist in his anatomy school. John showed an extraordinary aptitude for preparing anatomic dissections and soon convinced William of his unusual ability and intelligence. He became very skilled at dissection and learned anatomy from the human body rather than from books. Before 1745, anatomic dissection of human cadavers was limited by an act of Parliament to public dissections at the hall of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. The bodies of four executed criminals from the gallows at Tyburn were supplied for these dissections, but the alliance was dissolved in 1745. The new Company of Surgeons retained that privilege, but many more cadavers were needed for adequate training, and private schools of anatomy emerged. Cadavers for dissection were difficult to procure except from those who were known as “resurrectionists” or “body snatchers.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar It was the only way for a school of anatomy to obtain cadavers, and John Hunter proved to be very resourceful and clever at this job. He became a close associate of some of these persons who were viewed by most as disreputable. In the Hunterian Museum stands the 7-foot 7-inch skeleton of the Irish giant, Charles Byrne (Fig. 1).It is said that Byrne, fearing his “bones would fall into the hands of the surgeons,” had arranged for his body to be placed in a lead coffin and dumped at sea so it would not end up in the dissecting rooms.6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar The diving bell had just been invented and he was concerned that his body might be retrieved unless the coffin was sealed. His plan failed, however, and John Hunter obtained the body for £500. It was delivered to his house on Castle Street (now Charing Cross Road) on a warm summer night in 1783. Hunter had always had a great interest in comparative anatomy, and he made an agreement with the keeper of wild animals at the Tower of London to acquire any that died. He also purchased every unusual dead animal that he could find from the zoos and the circuses or any other source. The dissection of cadavers and the teaching of anatomy were unappealing pursuits during the summer months, and in 1748 and 1749 William arranged for John Hunter to have an apprenticeship in surgery under Cheselden at the Royal Hospital of Chelsea. Cheselden was a skilled surgeon and dedicated teacher, and he taught John Hunter the basics of surgery. After Cheselden became paralyzed in 1751, Hunter transferred to St. Bartholomew's Hospital as a surgeon's pupil under Percival Pott, thus gaining instruction under two of the best surgical teachers of his century. In 1754 John Hunter became a surgeon's pupil and attended a course of lectures at St. George's Hospital. Five years after John had joined him, John's brother William became Master of Anatomy at Surgeons Hall in 1753. John continued dissecting and helped his brother in teaching anatomy. In 1755 William persuaded John to enter St. Mary Hall in Oxford as a gentleman-commoner, but he stayed there for less than 2 months and returned to rejoin William in the anatomy school. He continued to be restless and in May 1756 returned to St. George's hospital as a house surgeon, but remained only 5 months.6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar, 7Campbell JM. John Hunter: address to Dental Students Society of the University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, 1952.Google Scholar In 1760 it first became apparent that Hunter was in poor health. It is recorded that he had “inflammation of the lungs,” although one cannot be certain whether the basic cause was tuberculosis.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar Certainly 12 years in the miasma of the dissection room was not wholesome. Although it is believed that he sought a post in the Army because of his deteriorating health, some have suggested that it was an opportunity for him to continue to exercise his insatiable curiosity in other parts of the world. After 6 months' rest, he was commissioned as an Army surgeon, and in 1761 he went to Bellisle off the north coast of France and later to Portugal. Here he obtained considerable experience in the management of gunshot wounds and other types of war injuries, and there was also the opportunity for him to continue the study of natural history, especially with the dissection of fishes. He evaluated the regeneration of lizard tails and hearing in fishes and also made a study of the Alentejo Plateau in southern Portugal. This caused him to suggest that the world was many hundred thousand centuries old, in contrast to the accepted age of not more than 6000 years.8Paget S. John Hunter.in: T Fisher Unwin, London1897: 56-74Google Scholar, 9Chitwood WR. John and William Hunter on aneurysms.Arch Surg. 1977; 112: 829-836Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar, 10Palmer JF. Works of John Hunter, FRS. vol 1. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Longman, London1835Google Scholar, 11Palmer JF. Works of John Hunter. vol 2. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Longman, London1837Google Scholar In May 1763 he retired on half pay from the Army and returned to London and Covent Gardens. He was without a job because his place in William's Anatomy School had been taken. The 12 years of congenial cooperation between John and William never revived after his tour in the Army. Apparently there was a dispute regarding the originality of a piece of anatomic research that sought to describe the placental circulation.8Paget S. John Hunter.in: T Fisher Unwin, London1897: 56-74Google Scholar This new ill feeling between the brothers was deep-seated. When William died, John did not attend the funeral, and he was not mentioned in William Hunter's will.9Chitwood WR. John and William Hunter on aneurysms.Arch Surg. 1977; 112: 829-836Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar, 10Palmer JF. Works of John Hunter, FRS. vol 1. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Longman, London1835Google Scholar, 11Palmer JF. Works of John Hunter. vol 2. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Longman, London1837Google Scholar John recognized that he did not have the accoutrements and appearance of the successful surgeons and therefore decided to hold private classes in anatomy and operative surgery. In England at that time the surgeons had achieved stature nearly equal to that of physicians. They often wore a coat of red satin or brocade, knee breeches, and buckle shoes, and some carried a gold-headed cane as a symbol of their office and from time to time even a sword. In 1764 Hunter acquired a few acres of land at Earl's Court and built a house and a pond to keep eels and fish and later added a menagerie in which he had leopards, jackals, buffalos, sheep, goats, and bees in an experimental center. During this time, in alliance with James Spence, a skillful dentist, he engaged in practice and obtained some of his fees from this source. He rented a house in Golden Square in 1766 and continued with his proper career as a surgeon. His ability must have been evident to all because in the following year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society 3 months before his brother William was, and on July 7, 1768, he was granted the diploma of membership in the Company of Surgeons. In that same year he was appointed surgeon to St. George's Hospital and served in this capacity until his death 25 years later. (Table I).6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar, 12Palmer JF. The complete works of John Hunter. Haswell, Barrington and Haswell, Philadelphia1841Google ScholarTable IHonors and appointments• Fellow of the Royal Society (1767)• Diploma of membership Company of Surgeons (1768)• Surgeon Extraordinary to the King (1776)• Member of the Royal Society Gothenberg (1781)• Member of the Royal Society of Medicine and Royal Academy of Surgery of Paris (1783)• Member of the American Philosophical Society (1787)• Surgeon-General of the Army (1790)• Inspector of Hospitals• Surgeon to St. George's Hospital (25 years) Open table in a new tab In 1771 Hunter married Anne Home, the daughter of Robert Home, a surgeon with whom Hunter had worked in Portugal. She was a gracious and attractive woman and a devoted wife. She possessed musical and literary talent and wrote verse, some of which was set to music by Hayden.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar, 6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar Her brother, Everard Home, was to become one of Hunter's many resident pupils and later his assistant. Home succeeded Hunter at St. George's Hospital and performed the autopsy on Hunter. He became one of the trustees of Hunter's papers and eventually destroyed them. It is believed by some that this desecration was undertaken to prevent Home from being accused of plagiarism, although no hard data support this allegation. Happily, William Clift was able to preserve a considerable amount of Hunter's work.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar, 6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar, 9Chitwood WR. John and William Hunter on aneurysms.Arch Surg. 1977; 112: 829-836Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar, 10Palmer JF. Works of John Hunter, FRS. vol 1. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Longman, London1835Google Scholar, 11Palmer JF. Works of John Hunter. vol 2. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Longman, London1837Google Scholar, 12Palmer JF. The complete works of John Hunter. Haswell, Barrington and Haswell, Philadelphia1841Google Scholar From 1763 to 1774, John Hunter's annual income never exceeded £1000; he did not exact high fees from his patients and did many cases for charity.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar His responsibilities increased each year, and in 1793 there were never fewer than 50 people depending on him in his three houses (Leicester Square, Earl's Court, and Castle Street), yet his annual income was less than £6000, and he died penniless.6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar To understand the obstacles confronting this remarkable man, we need to digress for a moment and examine the environment he faced. In the early days in England minor surgery was performed by monks in the monasteries, but barbers took over this work; operations also were performed by military surgeons. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 through 1539, many “liberated” monks were forced to practice medicine for a living.3Allen E. Summation of the history of the Hunterian Museum. Royal College of Surgeons, 1991Google Scholar In 1540 King Henry VIII united the Company of Barbers and the Guild of Surgeons by an act of Parliament; the Company of Barber-Surgeons, neither to encroach on the work of the other, was in control of surgery in London for the next 200 years. Lectures were arranged at the company's hall. If one wished to practice surgery in London, one had to register at the hall and be apprenticed for 7 years to a member and then be examined by a court of surgeons. The teaching of anatomy outside the purview of the hall was not permitted, and offenders were fined. Until the end of the seventeenth century, the only two general hospitals in London were St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, and consequently the barbers greatly outnumbered the surgeons. With the building of the hospitals at Westminster, St. George's, Guy's, and Middlesex and the London Hospital, the number of surgeons increased, and in 1745 a new Company of Surgeons was formed. Surgeons were not as highly respected as physicians with their university degrees, and surgical training depended on apprenticeship and observation. There were no medical schools attached to the hospitals, but privately owned schools of anatomy appeared, particularly in London. The Company continued to examine all surgeons in London but had no jurisdiction in other parts of England. Although the Royal College of Surgeons was not chartered until 1800, in 1745 it was a penal offense to practice surgery in or near London without an examination and license by the Committee of Master Surgeons.6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar What was London like at this time? It is difficult for us to appreciate the harshness of the living conditions.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar, 13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar The average life expectancy for an Englishman was 20 years; 59% of the children died before they were 5 years old and 64% before they were 10 years old. People died of consumption, fever, smallpox, and the hazards of childbirth, but excessive drinking of gin was responsible for the death of one in eight Londoners. There were more than 17,000 gin shops in London, and in 1735 it is recorded that 5,394,000 gallons of gin were distilled.13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar In an attempt at prohibition, heavy taxation was induced, and this of course led to a flourishing black market, increased crime, and the distillation of 7 million gallons of gin. This is not too dissimilar from the attempts at prohibition in the United States, when even those who ordinarily did not drink would partake if it were exciting and illegal. Minor crimes were punished with public flogging and the pillory, but more serious crimes led to hanging and perhaps even a disemboweling of the victim before asphyxiation. They might also be drawn and quartered. These spectacles attracted thousands, and the road to Tyburn's gallows was often lined by gawking citizens.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar Diversions from the cruelties and harshness of everyday life were few, and entertainment was sparse for most. The public paid a fee to watch the antics of lunatics tied by chain and collar to the wall of the Bethlehem Hospital. This was a showplace in London and a contraction of the word Bethlehem led to “bedlam.” Bloodletting was a standard panacea in treatment. It is estimated that in 1754 in France alone there were 40,000 deaths as a result of this practice.13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar Although the attitudes and habits of the citizens of the eighteenth century seem unacceptably cruel and uncaring, it must be remembered that the English law that had made witchcraft a felony was repealed only in 1736. In 1756 Victor Riqueti, Marquis de Miradeau, stated that “the health of the people is a responsibility of the state.” Clearly there was a new beginning on the horizon.13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar At this time England was being guided by William Pitt, and Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hogarth, Chippendale, and Sheraton were at work.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar Black-stone's commentaries were emerging, and Johnson's dictionary was evolving. The stage and opera at Covent Garden were active and Arne, Siddons, and Garrick could be seen.4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar Handel's Messiah was presented in Dublin and later for the King in London, but it was poorly received there and played only three times in 2 years. Science, based on empiricism and experimentation, was the rage. In 1747 Ben Franklin was reaching further into his experiments with electricity, and all of Europe was alive with electrical theories and experiments. In Pavia, Alessandro Volta placed a piece of tin on the tip of his tongue and a piece of silver on the back of his tongue and connected them with a wire and noticed a sour taste. Repeating the experiment with the electrodes on his palate and forehead gave him the sensation of light. He connected two different metals separated by moist paper and produced a current, thus the forerunner to the electric battery, the “Voltaic Pile” was born. The substance that Antoine Lavoisier in 1779 was to call oxygèn was first discovered by Carl Scheele in Kóping in 1772; he called it “fire-air,” but it remained for Joseph Priestley in 1774 to identify a chemical reaction in which a substance taken from the air was consumed in the flame, resulting in an increase in weight of the residual. Despite the increasing respect for experimental science and documentary proof, some of the old ways persisted then, even as they do today. Certainly the most famous quack of the eighteenth century was Franz Anton Mesmer.13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar From the laying on of hands to “electrical energy” to incantations and “mesmerization,” he practiced and attempted healing in Vienna until the police suggested he move to Paris. There, after the French Revolution, the government denounced him and banished him from France. He subsequently died in Switzerland in 1815. According to David Hume, the philosopher of Edinburgh, Scotland, this was the “Age of Reason.” While contemplating advancing age, Hume said, “for my sake and that of my friends I hope that fate will let me stop short of the threshold of old age, and not enter too far into that dismal region.”13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar It has been said that one should not wish for something because it might come true. Hume did not know this, but he would indeed die of ulcerative colitis in a few years, and his countryman John Hunter would die while still young. It would appear that “mankind are so much the same in all times and places that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular.”13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar In 1768 John Hunter built his own school. His museum was well along by this time, and he began his course of 100 lectures; all could be attended for the grand sum of 4 guineas. Hunter's lectures were direct and forceful and often quite colorful and, although some thought them coarse because they lacked the nice turn of a word (held to be so important by the educated), they were nevertheless very realistic. To criticize his method reminds one of the mistake that Durant referred to when he said, “classic counsel to perfect the form, to make the goblet more precious than its wine.”13Durant W Durant A. The age of Voltaire.in: Simon and Schuster, New York1965: 150-165Google Scholar When describing a gunshot wound, Hunter apparently referred to the ball as “having gone into the man's belly and hit his guts such a damned thump that they mortified.”7Campbell JM. John Hunter: address to Dental Students Society of the University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, 1952.Google Scholar It would be well for the detractors of the hunterian lectures to review the European Magazine for October 1782 in which George C. Peachey accurately quotes Hunter. There also are records from James Parkinson and Henry Nathaniel Rumsey, who attended his lectures (unpublished information). In a hunterian oration in 1824, Henry Cline observes, “when I was only 24 I had the happiness of hearing the first course of lectures which John Hunter delivered.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar He went on to say that he was well acquainted with the opinions held by other surgeons, but having heard Mr. Hunter's lectures he said, “I found them so far superior to everything I had conceived of before, that there seemed no comparison between the great mind of the man who delivered them and all the individuals, whether ancient or modern, who had gone before him.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar One has only to look at a few notables among the many students who profited from Hunter's lectures to recognize that he was indeed a superb teacher (Table II).Table IIPupils of John HunterEdward JennerSir Astley CooperMatthew BailleHenry ClineSir Everard HomeWilliam HewsonWilliam CliftWilliam LynnJohn AbernethyJohn MorganSir William BlizzardPhilip Wright PostSir Anthony CarlisleWilliam ShippenCharles WhitePhilip Syng Physick Open table in a new tab In addition to Henry Cline of St. Thomas's other students included Astley Cooper of Guy's, Abernethy of St. Bartholomew's, Carlisle and John Morgan of Philadelphia, and Philip Syng Physick of Pennsylvania. There also were William Blizzard, Benjamin Bell, Everard Home, and, of course, Edward Jenner, with whom Hunter was to maintain a long and fruitful correspondence. In one letter to Jenner, Hunter advised him, “but why do you ask me a question by way of solving it? I think your solution just; but why think, Why not trie the Expt.” This is a classic example of Hunter's experimental approach in which he said “true learning is only possible against a background of research.”6Qvist G. John Hunter 1728-1793. Biddles, London1981Google Scholar It has been duly noted that, unlike many of his contemporaries, Hunter continually revised and altered his views according to new experimental evidence. Astley Cooper once questioned Hunter regarding a statement apparently contrary to one he had made in the past and Hunter replied, “Very likely I did, I hope I grow wiser every year.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar I have already described to you what it is possible to see today in the Hunterian Museum, recognizing that this does not represent the entirety of his work but only what survives. Hunter dissected thousands of human bodies and more than 500 different species of animals, some of them several times. In 1897 Stephen Paget described him as “anatomist, biologist, naturalist, physician, surgeon, and pathologist, all at once and all in the highest.”4Cade S. The lasting dynamism of John Hunter: Hunterian oration.Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1963; 33: 5-19Google Scholar Always intrigued by fishes, he sugges
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