perfected by his more famous
brother, particularly his investigations of the capillaries, but he
added much to the anatomical knowledge of several structures of the
body, notably as to the structure of cartilages and joints.

JOHN HUNTER

In Abbot Islip's chapel in Westminster Abbey, close to the resting-place
of Ben Jonson, rest the remains of John Hunter (1728-1793), famous in
the annals of medicine as among the greatest physiologists and surgeons
that the world has ever produced: a man whose discoveries and inventions
are counted by scores, and whose field of research was only limited by
the outermost boundaries of eighteenth-century science, although his
efforts were directed chiefly along the lines of his profession.

Until about twenty years of age young Hunter had shown little aptitude
for study, being unusually fond of out-door sports and amusements; but
about that time, realizing that some occupation must be selected, he
asked permission of his brother William to attempt some dissections in
his anatomical school in London. To the surprise of his brother he made
this dissection unusually well; and being given a second, he acquitted
himself with such skill that his brother at once predicted that he would
become a great anatomist. Up to this time he had had no training of
any kind to prepare him for his professional career, and knew little of
Greek or Latin--languages entirely unnecessary for him, as he proved
in all of his life work. Ottley tells the story that, when twitted with
this lack of knowledge of the "dead languages" in after life, he said
of his opponent, "I could teach him that on the dead body which he never
knew in any language, dead or living."

By his second year in dissection he had become so skilful that he was
given charge of some of the classes in his brother's school; in 1754 he
became a surgeon's pupil in St. George's Hospital, and two years later
house-surgeon. Having by overwork brought on symptoms that seemed to
threaten consumption, he accepted the position of staff-surgeon to an
expedition to Belleisle in 1760, and two years later was serving with
the English army at Portugal. During all this time he was constantly
engaged in scientific researches, many of which, such as his
observations of gun-shot wounds, he put to excellent use in later life.
On returning to England much improved in health in 1763, he entered at
once upon his career as a London surgeon, and from that time forwar