226 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. had it in contemplation to found an anatomical school in this metropolis. For this purpose, about the year 1765, during the government of Mr. Grenville, he presented a memorial to that minister, in which he requested the grant of a piece of ground in the Mews, for the site of an anatomical theatre. Dr. Hunter undertook to expend seven thousand pounds on the building, and to endow a professorship of anatomy in per- petuity. This scheme did not meet vith the recep- tion which it deserved. In a conversation on this subject, soon afterwards, held with the Earl of Shelburne, his Lordship expressed a wish that the plan might be carried into execution by subscrip- tion, and very generously requested to accompany his name with a thousand guineas. Dr. Hunter's delicacy would not allow him to adopt this pro- posal. He chose rather to execute the plan at his own expense, and accordingly purchased a spot of ground in Great Windmill-street, where he erected a spacious house, to which he removed, from Jermyn-street, in 1770. In this building, besides a handsome amphi- theatre, and other convenient apartments for his lectures and dissections, one magnificent room was fitted up with great elegance and propriety as a museum. Of the magnitude and value of his collection some idea may be formed, when we consider the great length of years which he employed in making anatomical preparations, and in the dissection of morbid bodies, added to the eagerness with which he procured additions from the museums of Sandys, Falconar, Blackall, and others, which
