d
his progress was a practically uninterrupted series of successes in his
profession.

Hunter's work on the study of the lymphatics was of great service to
the medical profession. This important net-work of minute vessels
distributed throughout the body had recently been made the object of
much study, and various students, including Haller, had made extensive
investigations since their discovery by Asellius. But Hunter, in 1758,
was the first to discover the lymphatics in the neck of birds, although
it was his brother William who advanced the theory that the function
of these vessels was that of absorbents. One of John Hunter's pupils,
William Hewson (1739-1774), first gave an account, in 1768, of
the lymphatics in reptiles and fishes, and added to his teacher's
investigations of the lymphatics in birds. These studies of the
lymphatics have been regarded, perhaps with justice, as Hunter's most
valuable contributions to practical medicine.

In 1767 he met with an accident by which he suffered a rupture of
the tendo Achillis--the large tendon that forms the attachment of the
muscles of the calf to the heel. From observations of this accident,
and subsequent experiments upon dogs, he laid the foundation for the
now simple and effective operation for the cure of club feet and other
deformities involving the tendons. In 1772 he moved into his residence
at Earlscourt, Brompton, where he gathered about him a great menagerie
of animals, birds, reptiles, insects, and fishes, which he used in his
physiological and surgical experiments. Here he performed a countless
number of experiments--more, probably, than "any man engaged in
professional practice has ever conducted." These experiments varied
in nature from observations of the habits of bees and wasps to major
surgical operations performed upon hedgehogs, dogs, leopards, etc. It
is said that for fifteen years he kept a flock of geese for the sole
purpose of studying the process of development in eggs.

Hunter began his first course of lectures in 1772, being forced to do
this because he had been so repeatedly misquoted, and because he felt
that he could better gauge his own knowledge in this way. Lecturing was
a sore trial to him, as he was extremely diffident, and without writing
out his lectures in advance he was scarcely able to speak at all. In
this he presented a marked contrast to his brother William, who was
a fluent and brilliant speaker. Hunter's lectures were at be