On the life of William Hunter : the Harveian address, 13th April 1876 / by J. Matthews Duncan.

Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the life of William Hunter : the Harveian address, 13th April 1876 / by J. Matthews Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    In 1743, lie communicated to the Royal Society a paper on the Articular Cartilages, which has been highly praised by Brodie. In 1746, he was fairly launched in his career for life, succeeding Mr I* Sharpe as Lecturer on Anatomy, in an apartment in Covent Garden, to a Society of Navy Surgeons. He got seventy guineas as fees after his first introductory lecture, and, carrying the money home ■ with pride, told his friend Mr Watson that it was a larger sum : than he had ever before been master of. In 1747, he became a Member of the Corporation of Surgeons. In the same year he went to Leyden, made the acquaintance of Albinus there, and returned home by Paris. In 1748, he was elected :< Surgeon Man-midwife to the Middlesex Hospital, and in 1749 to the | British Lying-in Hospital. He had probably picked up some of j! the midwifery practice of his late master, Douglas ; and his pros- perity as an accoucheur was rapid and great. Fortunately for him, j! the two chief contemporary practitioners in this branch of medicine ! left the field and made an opening for him. Sir Richard Manning- ham died, and Dr Sandys retired. At this time he was joined in || London by his “uncouth” brother John, who had probably been [i] partly bred a cabinetmaker with his brother-in-law. In 1750 he got the degree of M.D. from the University of : Glasgow, and about the same time he began to practise as a | physician1 and give up surgery. He also now left Mrs Douglas’s house, and went to reside in Jermyn Street. In 1751 he revisited | his native place, showed particular interest in his paternal estate of Long Calderwood, gave directions for the repair of the house, i and for the purchase of any lands adjoining that might come into i' the market. Riding within sight of the place one day with Cullen, the latter pointed it out to his companion, and remarked its con- spicuousness ; to which Hunter rejoined, “ Well, if I live, I shall make it still more conspicuous.” This was the only holiday, or the last holiday, he ever took. In 1756, he was admitted a Fellow of the Royal College of ! Physicians. About this time he had his great quarrel with Monro concerning ' the anatomy of the lacteals and of the testes ; and some time after this dispute came another with his brother, concerning the anatomy of the placenta. In 1759, liewson began to assist him in his anatomical lectures, a connexion which ripened into a lecturing partnership in 1762, and which was ultimately and not quite amicably dissolved in 1770. Cruikshank succeeded Hewson. In 1762, he went to lec- ture in Litchfield Street, and in 1769 he went to the famous localitv m Windmill Street, J In 1764, he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to the Queen. In 1767, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1768, he joined the Society of Antiquaries, and in the same Nowadays, we would say as an “ obstetric physician” or “gynaecologist.”