William Hunter's microscope, Hunterian Museum, Glasgow

William Hunter (23 May 1718 – 30 March 1783) was a Scottish

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. He was a leading teacher of anatomy, and the outstanding

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgic ...

of his day. His guidance and training of his equally famous brother, John Hunter, was also of great importance.

Early life and career

Hunter was born at Long Calderwood, now a part of

East Kilbride East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...

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, to Agnes Paul (c.1685–1751) and John Hunter (1662/3–1741). He was the elder brother of surgeon, John Hunter. After studying divinity at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, he went into

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

in 1737, studying under

William Cullen William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was ...

. Arriving in London, Hunter became resident pupil to William Smellie (1741–44) and he was trained in

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having i ...

St George's Hospital St George's Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Tooting, London. Founded in 1733, it is one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals and one of the largest hospitals in Europe. It is run by the St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundatio ...

, London, specialising in

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a sur ...

. He followed the example of Smellie in giving a private course on dissecting, operative procedures and bandaging, from 1746. His courtly manners and sensible judgement helped him to advance until he became the leading obstetric consultant of London. Unlike Smellie, he did not favour the use of forceps in delivery.

Stephen Paget Stephen Paget (17 July 1855 – 8 May 1926) was an English surgeon and pro-vivisection campaigner.

Later career

In 1764, he became physician to

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1767 and Professor of Anatomy to the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 1768. In 1768 he built the famous anatomy theatre and museum in

Great Windmill Street Great Windmill Street is a thoroughfare running north–south in Soho, London, crossed by Shaftesbury Avenue. The street has had a long association with music and entertainment, most notably the Windmill Theatre, and is now home to the Ripley ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was deve ...

, where the best British anatomists and surgeons of the period were trained. His greatest work was ''Anatomia uteri umani gravidi'' he anatomy of the human gravid uterus exhibited in figures(1774), with plates engraved by Rymsdyk (1730–90), and published by the Baskerville Press. He chose as a model for clear, precise but schematic illustration of anatomic dissections the drawings by

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...

conserved in the Royal Collection at

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television ...

considered him responsible for the 18th century rediscovery of Leonardo's drawings in England. He praised them highly in his lectures and planned to publish them with his own commentary, but never had the time for the project before his death. To aid his teaching of

dissection Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause o ...

, in 1775 Hunter commissioned

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Agostino Carlini Augostino Carlini or Agostino Carlini (c. 1718 – 15 August 1790) was an Italian sculptor and painter, who was born in Genoa but settled in England. He was also one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Life He features in ...

to make a cast of the flayed but muscular corpse of a recently executed criminal, a

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

. He was professor of anatomy at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in London from 1769 until 1772. He was interested in arts, and had strong connections to the artistic world.

An avid collector

Around 1765 William Hunter started collecting widely across a range of themes beyond medicine and anatomy: books, manuscripts, prints, coins, shells, zoological specimens, and minerals. In several of these areas, he worked closely with specialists, such as

Johan Christian Fabricius Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is co ...

, and

George Fordyce George Fordyce (18 November 1736 – 25 May 1802) was a distinguished Scotland, Scottish physician, lecturer on medicine, and chemist, who was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Early life George Fo ...

who used his collections as tools for new biological and chemical science. He bequeathed his collections, plus a large sum to build a museum, to the University of Glasgow. The collections survive today as the nucleus of the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology M ...

, while his library and archives are now held in the University's library. Hunter's coin collection was especially fine, and the Hunter Coin Cabinet in the Hunterian Museum is one of the world's great numismatic collections. According to the Preface of ''Catalogue of Greek Coins in the Hunterian Collection'' (Macdonald 1899), Hunter purchased many important collections, including those of

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...

and the bibliophile

Thomas Crofts The Reverend and Learned Thomas Crofts FRS FSA (1722 – 8 November 1781) was a British bibliophile, Anglican priest, Fellow of the Royal Society and European traveller. Early life Crofts was born in Monmouth, Wales and was the son of John Cro ...

. King

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

even donated an Athenian gold piece. When the famous book collection of

Anthony Askew Anthony Askew (1722–1774) was an English physician and is best known for having been a book collector. His collection was purchased by the British Museum and books purchased by George III of Great Britain were added to the King's Library. Lif ...

, the ''Bibliotheca Askeviana'', was auctioned off upon Askew's death in 1774, Hunter purchased many significant volumes in the face of stiff competition from the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. He died in London in 1783, aged 64, and was buried at St James's, Piccadilly. A memorial to him lies in the church. A memorial to William Hunter in St James's Church, Piccadilly

A memorial to William Hunter in St James's Church, Piccadilly

Controversy

In 2010, the self-described historian Don Shelton made some lurid claims about the methods by which Hunter, his brother John, and his teacher and competitor William Smellie might have obtained bodies for their anatomical work. In a non-peer-reviewed opinion piece in the '' Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine'' he suggested that the two physicians committed multiple murders of pregnant women in order to gain access to corpses for anatomical dissection and physiological experimentation. He suggested that there was an inadequate match between supply and demand of pregnant corpses and that the two physicians must have commissioned many murders in order to carry out their work. Shelton's comments attracted media publicity, but were heavily criticised on factual and methodological grounds by medical historians, who pointed out that in 1761, Peter Camper had indicated that figures "were not all from real life", and likely methods other than murder were available to obtain bodies of recently deceased pregnant women at that time. Hunter also provided case histories for at least four of the subjects illustrated in ''The Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus Exhibited in Figures'', published in 1774. A recent review of Hunter's sources of anatomical specimens was published in 2015. That "multiple methods of preservation were combined" at Hunter's Great Windmill Street school in order to retain as much information from the individual cadavers as possible further indicates the rarity and value of these bodies. Richard Bellis
‘"The object of sense and experiment": the ontology of sensation in William Hunter's investigation of the human gravid uterus'
The British Journal for the History of science 1-2
doi:10.1017/S0007087422000024
Helen King indicated that the over-enthusiastic response of the media and the internet to Shelton's unreviewed speculations raised fresh questions about how medical history is generated, presented and evaluated in the media and, in particular, on the internet.

References

External links

Hunter's anatomical collections

Biography of William Hunter

Zoological specimens

Selected images from ''Anatomia uteri humani gravidi''
From The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Digital Library * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, William 1718 births 1783 deaths Scottish anatomists Fellows of the Royal Society People from East Kilbride 18th-century Scottish medical doctors Scottish scholars and academics Scottish book and manuscript collectors Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish numismatists Burials at St James's Church, Piccadilly

Early life and career

An avid collector

Controversy

See also

References

Further reading

External links