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William Hunter, Anatomist

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William Hunter, Anatomist Mil. Teacher?William Hunter, Anatomist. 15 WILLIAM HUNTER, ANATOMIST: A LECTURE WITH DEMONSTRATION OF PREPARATIONS FROM THE OBSTETRICAL SERIES OF THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM.1 By JOHN H. TEACHER, M.A., M.B., C.M., Underkeeper in the Hunterian Museum, and Assistant in the Physiological Department, Glasgow University. The billet for this afternoon's the " proceedings designates subject of the lecture William Hunter, Anatomist." When I was asked to give this lecture and demonstration to the Society, the idea was that it should deal with William Hunter as an obstetrician ; but it gives an opportunity, which I trust you will excuse me for regarding as too good to be omitted* of entering a protest against the commonly accepted view of what William Hunter was, and why he is entitled to a prominent place in the history of medicine. To quote the words of the late Dr. Matthews Duncan,2 who " was a most enthusiastic admirer of the accurate William Hunter," "he is known as a fashionable practitioner and a " great author in obstetrics," yet he did not give his great and sustained powers to midwifery, but to anatomy. His abilities, his zeal, his great fortune were devoted to this. To use his own phrase, he made a great figure in anatomy. We know from his own mouth that it was as an anatomist that he claimed eminence and expected fame; and although his repu- tation has latterly become too exclusively obstetrical, it has not even in this respect been too highly exalted. Yet it is necessary, with a view to justice, to point out that his obstet- rical fame is chiefly anatomical, and that his greatest claim on our admiration and gratitude arises from his anatomical work and influence." If we judge William Hunter from his writings we might allow that the common estimate of him is the correct one, for the great work which has conferred immortality on his name (as Waldeyer3 describes it, "dieses 1 Head at a meeting of the Glasgow Obstetrical and Gyntecoloical ?Society held on 26th April, 1899, in the University. 2 Harveian Oration, Edinburgh Medical Journal, No. cclii, June, 1876, p. 1070. 3 " Article, William Hunter," in Biographische Lexikon der Aertzte, Ourlt and Hirsch, Vienna and Leipzig, 1886. He also mentions that a number of W. Hunter's papers from Medical Observations and Philosophical Transactions were translated into German and published in 1784-85 in two volumes, 8vo, by C. G. Kuhn, at Leipzig. I have not seen these volumes. 1G Mr. Teacher?William Hunter, Anatomist. fur alle zeiten wertli wolles werk "), The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, completely overshadows all his other works; yet not altogether deservedly, for there are many contributions, especially to anatomy and physiology, but also to surgery and pathology, in his lesser works which are worthy of attention. Unfortunately, he never collected his scattered papers from the rather inaccessible proceedings and transactions in which they appeared, to issue them as a separate volume (like his brother John's Observations on the Animal Economy) which would have found a place in every library of importance. In the held of obstetric practice he shares with Smellie the credit of rescuing midwifery in England from the clutches of ignorant and superstitious midwives, placing it in the hands of properly qualified educated medical practitioners, and giving it a sound basis of correct anatomy and physiology. As he said to his students in 1774,1 "We are greatly improved in midwifery within these twenty years past. What is this great improve- ment ? Why, I am proud to have a share in it; it is the bringing it back to nature. Everybody knows, who lives in this town, what difference there is in having children born dead, and what is the reason. It is only within these last twenty years that women have had men-midwives almost universally. Formerly they were only retained in the house and called for in difficult cases. Thus it was with the Chamberlens, my master Douglas, and others. What was the consequence ? All cases were difficult and so bad before they were called in that everybody was much frightened. On these accounts they did not know what nature could do, and therefore were obliged to have immediate recourse to art^ and whenever they had opened a child's head to deliver a woman it was thought they had done great feats. But if they had understood midwifery, and what great things nature was capable of effecting, they would seldom have had occasion to proceed in that manner." " " But besides laying the stable foundations of the science of midwifery, and teaching his contemporaries how to apply that science, he has still wider claims to be regarded as a benefactor of the human race. He was the founder, the organiser, in every way the leader, of the school of anatomy of which Sir Charles Bell wrote in 1812,2 the school "founded by the Hunters has made all the anatomists of the present day at home and abroad." At the time he came to London 1 Midwifery Lectures, MS., Royal College of Surgeons of England, 42,, c. 31, p. 166. 2 Letters of Sir C. Bell, p. 197, 8vo, London, 1870. Mr. Teacher?William Hunter, Anatomist. 17 the condition of medicine and medical education in Britain was miserably deficient. This, he saw, was very largely owing to the backward condition of what may be called the preliminary scientific training?the anatomy and physiology " and pathology which are the only solid foundation for " medicine"; to the difficulties, dangers, and expenses that must be incurred in procuring dead bodies and in providing proper places for dissection, and to the secrecy with which 1 the business must be conducted." Also, that anatomy was " tenght only by young men as an introduction to business, the name of lecturer, in newspapers and in private conversation, never failing to give a man some degree of credit. But such young teachers will generally be very indifferently qualified when they begin; and when they have acquired some ability from experience, that is, when they are just become fit for teaching, they will generally leave off. They will always find their labour better rewarded (in the vulgar sense of reward) by following the practice of physic or surgery than by reading lectures. 80 it has been, in fact; and thence, though we have had many professors or teachers in this great town, we have not had one Winslow, or Morgagni, or Albinus; nor can it be expected that a Briton should be able to do in a few years what is done by the labour of a long life in other countries; especially, too, when we consider that there is no provision made by our government for supplying him with subjects, and that in other countries this article is amply provided for." To the schools of the Continent, then (like the Monros of Edinburgh and Smellie) did William Hunter proceed, after first making himself as competent an anatomist as was possible at home. He attended the whole course of lectures of at least one of the leading anatomists of the day. He studied the methods of teaching, of investigation, and of making prepara- tions, and on his return organised, "not only without public encouragement, but in the face of the greatest difficulties and the most chilling and discouraging inattention,"2 courses of anatomy which equalled, and indeed ultimately surpassed, those of the foreign masters. According to Matthews Duncan, "he may be regarded in many respects as the founder of the London School of Medicine as a good place of education." There were teachers of anatomy in London before his day, but he was the first to give a complete systematic illustrated 1 Introductory Lectures of Dr. William Hunter, pp. 118 and 119 ; Petition to the King, 4to, London, 1784. 2 Thomson's Life of Cullen. No. 1. B Vol. L1I. 18 Mr. Teacher?William Hunter, Anatomist. " course, and Simmons remarks that it deserves to be mentioned, as an additional mark of his prudence, that he did not pre- in cipitately engage in this attempt, but spent several years such a of knowledge and such a collection of acquiring degree 1 preparations as might ensure him success." These anatomical preparations were the nucleus of his museum. The great value that the museum, the expenses of which were paid as he went along out of his professional income,2 ultimately attained, proves that he combined with his prudence a full share of business capacity. He also possessed the talent of infusing his own ardour into his pupils. The list of the most remarkable of the men whom as his assistants he trained to anatomy, speaks for itself. The first, John Hunter, everybody knows about. The published wrorks of William Hunter contain many references to the assistance he received from his younger brother, and one cannot read the reports of his lectures without being struck with the evident pride he took in John's achievements, and the pleasure he felt in acknowledging his indebtedness to him. When, after eleven years of arduous work in the dissecting- room, John's health gave way and he had to go abroad, he was succeeded by William Hewrson, a most able physiologist, the discoverer of the lymphatics in reptiles and fishes, of the white corpuscles of the blood and their origin in the lymphatic glands and spleen, of the true shape of the red corpuscles in man, of the nucleus of the red corpuscles in birds and fishes, and who also shed the first rays of light upon the nature of the coagulation of the blood and that everlasting puzzle the function of the spleen.
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