John Hunter : his life and labors / by C.W.G. Rohrer.

  • Rohrer, C. W. G. (Caleb Wyand Geeting), 1873-1952
Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: John Hunter : his life and labors / by C.W.G. Rohrer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    cabinet-maker at Glasgow, married to a sister whom he dearly [ll] loved, was laboring under pecuniary embarrassment, he paid him a visit, and for a time assisted him in his business, not as an apprentice but as a volunteer, working probably at small wages or simply for his board and clothing. It was this cir- cumstance which induced some of his envious contemporaries to assert that in early life he had been a wheelwright or a carpenter;5 a statement for which there is not the slightest foundation in truth. For three years he generously aided his brother-in-law, but tiring of an occupation which was in no wise congenial to him, he was seized with a desire to visit his brother William, who had been living for some time in Lon- don, and had succeeded in building up a large and lucrative practice, and was growing rapidly in reputation. He wrote to bim, asking leave to come and be his assistant in his anatom- ical researches; or, if that proposal should not be accepted, ex- pressing a wish to enlist in the army. In answer he received a very kind invitation from his brother, and immediately set off for London, where he arrived in September, 1748, about a fortnight before tbe commencement of the autumnal course of lectures. An arrangement was promptly made by which John became an assistant to his brother. Herein was aroused the latent fire of his remarkable genius, which never ceased to burn from that auspicious moment until the day of his widely- lamented death. His reception in London is described by Professor Samuel D. Gross, in the following words: The meeting between the two brothers was cordial, and ar- rangements were at once effected by which John became an assistant in William’s anatomical rooms, which, although only recently opened, had lalready acquired marked celebrity on account of their educational advantages. It was there that young Hunter first became aware of his latent powers, and threw off 'Reference is here made to Jesse Foot’s statement, on p. 10, of his “Life of Hunter,” which reads as follows: “ A wheel wright or a carpenter he certainly was, until the event of William Hunter becoming a public lecturer in anatomy, changed the scheme of his future occupations, and determined him to accept the invitation of his brother: to lay down the chisel, the rule, and the mallet; and take up the knife, the blow- pipe, and the probe.”
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