John Hunter : surgeon and naturalist... / [Douglas Guthrie].

  • Douglas James Guthrie
Date:
[1942]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John Hunter : surgeon and naturalist... / [Douglas Guthrie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    John Hunter’s Legacy to Mankind It is not easy to explain the secret of Hunter’s greatness nor to assess the results he achieved during his strenuous life in London. The fact that he published nothing until his forty- third year indicates the accuracy of his researches and his meticulous adherence to his rule of proving all things. His papers to the Royal Society were prepared with scrupulous care, although his style of writing is sometimes trying to the reader. He made no definite discovery, and yet, in a sense, he was the originator of many discoveries. The pioneer may not find the largest nugget, but at least he shows where gold may be found. Although he was a skilful surgeon, operating was distasteful to him. In his lectures he states that “ to perform an operation is to mutilate a patient whom we cannot cure by other means, and it should therefore be considered as an acknowledgement of the imperfection of our art.” Nevertheless, his operation of ligature at a distance, of ligation of the femoral artery in “ Hunter’s canal ” in the treatment of popliteal aneurysm was the means of saving many limbs. His experiments of grafting a spur or a human tooth into the comb of a cock were the precursors of the modern procedure of bone-grafting. By his investigations on the developing embryo in the eggs of geese he advanced the science of embryology. On many other subjects did he write— on bees, on whales, on the blood and inflammation, on post¬ mortem digestion of the stomach, on the gizzard or Gillaroo trout, on electric organs in fishes, on animal heat and on the olfactory nerves. He also wrote descriptions of the Rangaroo, the Potoroo (Kangaroo rat) and the Wha Tapoua Roo (Phalanger), specimens of each having been sent to him from New South Wales. Some of the papers were collected and reprinted under the title Animal Economy in 1786, while his Lectures on Surgery were published under the editorship of Mr James F. Palmer, Surgeon to St George’s Hospital, in 1835. The construction of the Museum * was an achievement which would have brought fame to any man. But neither the writings nor the museum represent the end-result of John Hunter’s labours. This fact has been stressed by many * Almost completely destroyed by enemy action in May 1941.
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