HUNTER, John, British surgeon and phys ologist : b. Long Calderwood, Lanarkshire, 13 Feb. 1728; d. London, 16 Oct. 1793. He was a younger brother of William Hunter (q.v.). In 1749 and 1750 he studied surgical pathology at Chelsea Hospital, London, and already began to make original observations, which, his subse quent experience confirmed. In 1754 he was en tered as a surgeon pupil at Saint Georges Hos pital; and in 1754 or 1755 be was admitted to a partnership in his brother's school of anatomy, and continued to lecture there till 1759. He served as staff-surgeon in France and Portugal 1760-63, and then returned to London and com menced practice as a surgeon. In 1767 he was elected a member of the Royal Society, and in 1768 was appointed surgeon to Saint George's Hospital. His investigations at this time ex tended over every branch of natural history, particularly pathology, comparative anatomy and physiology, to which he devoted his entire leisure time. In 1790 he was appointed inspec
tor-general of hospitals and surgeon-general to the army. Hunter left at his death a museum which he had built for himself, and filled with upward of 10,000 preparations illustrative of the departments of science to which his attention had been devoted. It was afterward purchased by government and presented to the Royal Col lege of Surgeons. His leading works are the