HUNTER 389 and awakened the attention of all the surgeons in Europe." Early in 178G Hunter published his Treatise on the Venereal Disease, which, like some of his previous writings, was printed in his own house. Without the aid of the booksellers, 1000 copies of it were sold within a twelve month. Although certain views therein expressed with regard to the relationship of syphilis have been proved erroneous, the work is a valuable compendium of observa tions of cases and modes of treatment (cf. Hilton, Hunt. Orat., p. 40). Towards the end of the year appeared his Observations on certain parts of the Animal (Economy, which, besides the more important of his contributions to the Philosophical Transactions, contains nine papers on various subjects. By the death of Mr Middleton in 1786, Hunter became deputy surgeon-general to the army ; his appoint ment as surgeon-general and as inspector-general of hospitals followed in 1790, on the death of Mr Adair. In 1787 he received the Royal Society s Copley medal as a testimony to the importance of his discoveries in natural history,and was also elected a member of the American Philo sophical Society. On account of the increase in his prac tice and his impaired health, he now obtained the services of Home as his assistant at St George s Hospital. The death of Pott in December 1788 secured to Hunter the undisputed title of the first surgeon in England. He re signed to Home, in 1792, the delivery of his surgical lec tures, in order to devote himself more fully to the completion of his Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gunshot Wounds, which was published by his executors in 1794-. In this, his masterpiece, the application of physiology to practice is especially noticeable. Certain experiments described in the first part, pp. 62-G4, which demonstrate that arterialization of the blood in respiration takes place by a process of diffusion of " pure air " or " vital air " (i.e., oxygen) through membrane, were made so early as the summer of 1755. Hunter in 1792 announced to his colleagues at St George s, who, he considered, neglected the proper instruc tion of the students under their charge, his intention no longer to divide with them the fees which he received for his hospital pupils. Against this innovation, however, the governors of the hospital decided in March 1793. Subse quently, by a committee of their appointing, a code of rules respecting pupils was promulgated, one clause of which, probably directed against an occasional practice of Hunter s, stipulated that no person should be admitted as a student of the hospital without certificates that he had been educated for the medical profession. In the autumn two young Scotchmen, ignorant of the new rule, came up to town and applied to Hunter for admission as his pupils at St George s. Hunter explained to them how he was situated, but promised to advance their request at the next board meeting at the hospital on the IGth October. On that day, having finished a difficult piece of dissection, be went down to breakfast in excellent spirits and in his usual health. After making a professional call, he attended the board meeting. There the interruption of his remarks in behalf of his applicants by a flat contra diction from a colleague brought on one of the old spas modic heart attacks ; he ceased speaking, and retired into an adjoining room only in time to fall lifeless into the arms of Dr Robertson, one of the hospital physicians. After an hour had been spent in vain attempts to restore animation, his body was conveyed to his house in a sedan chair. 1 Thus, in his sixty-fifth year, and in the height of 1 The record of Hunter s death in the St James Chronicle for October 15-17, 1793, p. 4, col. 4, makes no allusion to the imme diate cause of Hunter s death, but gives the following statement : "JOHN HUNTER. This eminent Surgeon and valuable man was his mental activity, died John Hunter, " whose range of thought nature alone could fill," and to whom, as to but few among all mankind, had been given wisdom to inter pret the dark sayings of nature. His remains were interred privately on October 22, 1793, in the vaults of St Martin s in the Fields. Tbence, on March 28, 1859, through the instrumentality of Mr Frank Buckland, they were removed to Abbot Islip s chapel in Westminster Abbey, to be finally deposited in the grave in the north aisle of the nave, close to the resting-place of Ben Jonson. Hunter was of about medium height, strongly built, and high- shouldered and short-necked. He had an open countenance, and large features, eyes light-blue or grey, eyebrows prominent, and hair reddish-yellow in youth, later white, and worn curled behind; and he dressed plainly and neatly. He rose at or before six, dis sected till nine (his breakfast hour), received . patfents from half- past nine till twelve, at least during the latter part of his life, and saw his outdoor and hospital patients till about four, when he dined, taking, according to Home, as at other meals in the twenty years preceding his death, no wine. After dinner he slept an hour; he then superintended experiments, read or prepared his lectures, and made, usually by means of an amanuensis, records of the day s dissections. "I never could understand," says Clift, " how Mr Hunter obtained rest : when 1 left him at midnight, it was with a lamp fresh trimmed for further study, and with the usual appointment to meet him again at six in the morning." Mr H. Leigli Thomas records 2 that, on his first arrival in London, having by desire called on Hunter at five o clock in the morning, he found him already busily engaged in the dissection of insects. Rigidly economical of time, Hunter was always at work, and always he had in view some fresh enter prise. He was once heard by Adams to express regret that men must die at all. To his museum he gave a very large share of his attention, being fearful lest the ordering of it should be incomplete at his death, and knowing of none who could continue his work for him. " When I am dead," said he one day to Dr Garthshore, " you will not soon meet with another John Hunter." At the time of his death he had anatomized certainly over 500 different species of animals, some of them repeatedly, and had made numerous dis sections of plants. The manuscript works by him appropriated and destroyed by Home, among which were his eighty-six surgical lectures, all in full, are stated to have been " literally a cartload" ; and many pages of his records were written by Clift under his directions " at least half a dozen times over, with corrections and transpositions almost without end." To Hunter, as he himself observed, to think was a delight. His mind was framed for systematic investigation, and hence, perhaps, arose the fatigue which, more particularly during the last ten years of his life, the desultory conversation of a mixed company would occasion him. 3 " My mind is like a bee-hive," was a remark of his to Abernethy, "a simile which struck me," says that writer, "on account of its correctness ; for, in the midst of buzz and apparent confusion, there was great order, regularity of structure, and abund ant food, collected with incessant industry from the choicest stores of nature." 4 Hunter was generally, though cheerfully, taciturn, and many a morning s labour with Clift was passed with scarcely a word of discourse. When, however, he spoke as while resting himself, and standing upright from his dissection after stooping for hours as if nailed to the object under investigation he evinced both shrewd ness and wit. In conversation his words were well chosen, and his remarks often wonderfully forcible and pointed ; and, when so dis posed, he could put things in a very ludicrous point of view. He articulated slowly, and in consultation gave his opinion much as if lecturing, the enunciation of his not seldom novel doctrines being prefaced by some introductory illustration or history. A stranger to artifice and flattery, and open and unceremonious or even blunt in speech, he readily communicated what he knew and thought, and thus did not always inspire others with a higher opinion of their personal consequence. " We are but beginning to learn our profession, "he would tell his friends; and he was wont to say that he was conscious of no peculiar talent, but that, if he had promoted professional know ledge, it seemed to him to have arisen chiefly from his disposition to distrust opinions, and to examine every subject for himself. What views of his he confidently offered for acceptance wore such as he be lieved to have a solid foundation in facts ; and the blind enun ciation by his fellow-practitioners of time-honoured errors vexed suddenly taken ill, yesterday, in the Council-room of St George s Hospital. After receiving the assistance which could be afforded by two Physicians and a Surgeon, he was removed in a close chair to his house, in Leicester Fields, where he expired about two o clock." Examination of the heart revealed disease involving the pericardium, endocardium, and arteries, the coronary arteries in particular showing ossific change. 2 Hunt. Orat., 1827, p. 5.
3 Home, Life, p. Ixv. 4 Hunt. Orat., 1819, p. 48.
