WILLIAM HUNTER. 225 tinually declining in health, but pursuing distinc- tion with the same ardour with which he had courted it in his earlier days. He rose from a bed of sickness to dehver an introductory lecture on the operations of surgery, in opposition to the earnest remonstrances of his friends. The lecture Avas accordingly delivered, but it was his last; towards the conclusion his strength was so much exhausted, that he fainted away, and was finally replaced in the chamber which he had been so eager to quit. In a few days he was no more. Turning to his friend Combe, in his latter moments, he observed, " I/" / had strength enough to hold a pen^ T would write how easy and pleasant a thing it is to die." He expired on the 30th of March, 1783 : his brother, John, occasionally introduced the catheter in this last paralytic seizure. When he began to practise obstetrics, Hunter's ambition was fixed on the acquisition of a fortune sufficient to place him in easy and independent circumstances. Before many years had elapsed, he found himself in possession of a sum adequate to his wishes in this respect ; and this he set apart as a resource of which he might avail himself, wdienever age or infirmities should oblige him to retire from business. He confessed to a friend, that he once took a considerable sum from this fund for the purposes of his museum, but that he did not feel himself perfectly at ease till he had re- stored it again. After he had obtained this competency, as his wealth continued to accumulate, he formed a re- markable and praiseworthy design of engaging in some scheme of public utility, and at first Q
