Volume 1

Catalogue of the anatomical and pathological preparations of Dr. William Hunter : in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow / catalogue prepared by John H. Teacher.

  • Hunterian Museum (University of Glasgow)
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Catalogue of the anatomical and pathological preparations of Dr. William Hunter : in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow / catalogue prepared by John H. Teacher. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    80/486 (page 74)
    at the proposal made to Mr. Combe in your first letter. It was proposed in that letter that, in order to induce Glasgow to part with the medals for a price greater than their value, the other parts of the collection should be given up to them. “ In this proposal, which was general, the anatomical preparations were included. To give up which implies giving up two-thirds of my present income, one-third of Mr. Cruikshank’s income, and likewise all the probable chance of my success in life. I think it might have occurred as you knew my fortune exactly, and had some tolerable idea of Mr. C.’s situation, that this sacrifice was too much to be expected. “ I thought you had a better opinion of me than to suppose I should wish to sit down as an idle gentleman upon £100 and afterwards £200 per annum. But, since this is not the case, I should wish you to believe that my ambition is to spend an active and, I hope, a ser- viceable life; and that I intend to pursue those means which have been put in my power. “I really could have wished you had not made this proposal, or that now you could make it bear another construction. You have now heard what I have thought and felt upon this subject. It seemed right that I should not conceal it from you.” The upshot was that the whole museum remained in London in the meantime. Baillie, it appears,1 “had so little besides [the family estate which he gave to John Hunter] that he would have been obliged to leave London, if his lectures had not been successful, but they were a complete success, and from that time his reputation was established as a first-rate lecturer.” Two years after Hunter’s death he assumed his full place as partner with Cruiksliank, and gave his first course of anatomy lectures. At the age of twenty-two he essayed to fill the place of one of the most celebrated teachers of the age ; a bold step, but justified by success. Baillie’s reputation rests chiefly on his work as a pathologist. His work on the Morbid Anatomy of the Ruman Body was the first systematic treatise on pathology in the English language. It went through six editions between 1793 and 1824, and was for about fifty years the standard work on the subject. It was accompanied by an Atlas of Engravings of Morbid Anatomy (folio), the first fasciculus of which appeared in 1799. Of the 207 figures in it, 114 were taken from preparations in William Hunter’s museum. Most of these have 1From a note by his daughter, Mrs. Milligan, in Miss Baillie’s copy of his life (from Wardrop’s edition) and Lectures and Observations (vide ante), p. 14.