The extent and importance of John Hunter's works will be best ehown by a brief account of his museum and his chief publications. The museum consisted, at the time of his death, of upwards of 10,000 preparations, illustrative of human and comparative anatomy, phy siology and pathology, and natural history. The main object which he had in view in forming it was to illustrate as far as possible the whole subject of life by preparations of the bodies iu which its phenomena are presented. The principal and most valuable part of the collection, forming the physiological series, consisted of dissections of the organs of plants and animals, classed according to their different vital functions, and In each class arranged so as to present every variety of form, beginning from the most simple, and passing upwards to the most complex. They were disposed in two main divisions: the first, illustrative of the functions which minister to the necessities of the individual ; the second, of those which provide for the continuance of the species. The first division commenced with a few examples of the component parte of organic bodies, as sap, blood, itc.; and then exhibited the organs of support and motion, presenting a most interesting view of the various materials aud apparatus for affording the locomotive power necessary to the various classes of beings. It was succeeded by a series illustrating the function of digestion (which Hunter placed first because he regarded the stomach as the organ most peculiarly characteristic of animals), and those of nutrition, circulation, respiration, kc. Those were followed by the organs which place each being In relation with the surrounding world, as the nervous system, the organs of sense, the external coverings, 8ro. The other chief division of the physiological part of the collection con tained the sexual organs of plants and animals in their barren and impregnated states; the preparations illustrative of the gradual development of the young, and of the organs temporarily subservient to their existence before and after birth. Parte of the same general division, though arranged separately for the sake of convenience, were the very beautiful collections of nearly 1000 skeletons ; of objects illustrative of natural history, consisting of animals and plants pre served in spirit or stuffed, of which he left nearly 3000; of upwards of 1200 fossils; and of monsters.
The pathological part of the museum contained *bent 2500 aped• mcus, arranged in three principal departments : the first illustrating the processes of common diseases and the actions of restoration; the second the effects of specific diseases; and the third the effects of various diseases arranged according to their locality in the body. Appended to these was a collection of about 700 calculi and other norganic concretion& These few words may give some idea of Hunter's prodigious labour and Industry as a collector. But his museum contains sufficient proof that he was no mere collector ; it was formed with a design the most admirabIe, and arranged In a manner the most philosophlo ; and whoa it is remembered that it was all tho work of one man, labouring under every disadvantage of deficient education, and of limited and often embarrassed pecuniary resources, it affords perhaps better evidence of the strength and originality of Hunter's mind than any of his written work; where ho speaks of the facts which in his museum are made to speak for themselves. Nor should it be omitted that the manual dexterity exhibited in displaying the various objects is fully equal to the intellectual power which determined their arrangement. The museum was sold after Hunter's death to pay the debts which ho had incurred iu its formation, and to afford the means of support to his family, to whom It was almost all that he had to leave, although for many years before his death ho had been earning a very large income. The government gave 15,000/. for it and presented it to the College of Surgeons, London, by whom it has been greatly augmented.
For several years before his death liunterlaad been anxious to form a complete catalogue of his collection, and to embody in one large work the results of all his labours and observations. lie died when he had completed but a small portion of his dodge, and left only the materials, with which his successors might have completed a work which would undoubtedly have been the most valuable of its kind ever published.
These materials were contained in nineteen folio manuscript volumes written under Hunter's dictation, and the ten most valuable of them contained records of his dissections, of all of which ho had made copious notes. The formation of the catalogue was intrusted to Sir Everard Home, the brother-in-law and only surviving executor of Hunter ; but from year to year he deferred his task, and after sup plying only two small portions of Me undertaking, he at length announced that, in accordance with a wish which ho had heard Mr. Hunter express, he had burned the manuscripts which he had taken without leave from the College of Surgeons, and among which were the ten volumes of dissections, and numerous other original papers. Thus nearly the whole labours of Hunter's life seemed lost : a few only of the least important of his writings remained, unless indeed wo reckon as his the numerous essays which Sir E. Homo published as hie own in the ' Philosophical Transactions,' and subsequently collected in 6 vols. 4to of ' Lectures on Comparative Anatomy.' Many of these give strong evidence of his having used Hunter's writings in their composition; and the fear lest his plagiarism should be detected is the only probable reason that can be assigned for so disgraceful an act, The papers being thus lost, the formation of the catalogue was neces sarily dependent ou the arrangement of the preparations themselves, the published works, and the few scattered manuscripts that remained, and such information as those who had associated with Hunter could give. By these means however, and by making numerous fresh die sections, and comparing them with the original preparatious, the catalogue was eventually formed in a manner which, although it could not compensate for the loss of the other, conferred the highest credit on those by whom it was made.
Hunter's principal published works were the 'Treatise on the Natural History of the Human Teeth,' 2 vols. 4to, 1771.78; 'Treatise on the Venereal Disease,' 4to, 1786 ; 'Observations on Certain Parts of the Animal (Economy,' 4to, 1786 ; and Treatise on the Blood, Iuflain reation, aud Gun-Shot Wounds,' 2 vole. 8vo, 1791. Of these the two last afford the beet proofs of his genius. The Animal (Economy' consists of a republication of several papers from the 'Philosophical Transactions,' and of nine others relating to various anatomical and physiological discoveries which Hunter had made. It is difficult to say which deserves the most admiration, the faultless accuracy of the observations themselves, or the clearness and simplicity of the deduc tions drawn from them. His Treatise on the Blood,' fie., although he had been collecting materials for it from the time of his entrance into the army, was not written till late in his life, when ho was worn down by disease; and it was rather carelessly completed after his death by his executors, Sir E. Homo and Dr. Baillie. It contains his opinions on disease iu general, the results of his long experience, illustrated by numerous physiological investigations. As a collection of observations these volumes are invaluable ; but it is unfortunate that Hunter's reputation has been based upon them rather than upon his museum or his strictly physiological writings, for in the former his mode of reasoning is often obscure and hasty, and his conclusions far more general than the evidence warranted. His doctrines were purely vital. The ' materia vitro diffusa,' a term which be says was recommended to him by his friends to express the power, or, as he supposed, the subtle matter, which he believed to be contaiued in the blood and all the tissues, and to govern all the functions of the living body, was to him the solo agent in the phenomena of life. But his errors were those of iguerance of collateral subjects, rather than of a deficient acquaintance with that which he made the object of his study; and when we consider that he was so little educated, that he was not even well acquainted with his own language, and was ignorant of all others, and that ho had only the most superficial knowledge of the physical sciences, which every year now shows to have more applications In the study of the living body, we can only wonder the more at the genius which could surmount such difficulties.