William Hunter (anatomist)

William Hunter (anatomist)

Infobox Scientist
name = William Hunter
box_width =



image_width =150px
caption = William Hunter
birth_date = 23 May 1718
birth_place = East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire
death_date = 30 March 1783
death_place = London
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = Scottish
ethnicity =
field = anatomy
work_institutions =
alma_mater = University of Glasgow
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for =
author_abbrev_bot =
author_abbrev_zoo =
influences =
influenced =
prizes =
religion =
footnotes =

William Hunter FRS (23 May 1718 – 30 March 1783) was a Scottish anatomist and physician.

He was born at Long Calderwood near East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, the elder brother of John Hunter. After studying divinity at the University of Glasgow, he went into medicine in 1737, studying under William Cullen. He was a leading teacher of anatomy, and the outstanding obstetrition of his day. His guidance and training of his ultimately more famous brother was also of great importance.

Early career

Arriving in London, Hunter became resident pupil to William Smellie (1741–44) and he was trained in anatomy at St George's Hospital, London, specialising in obstetrics. 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 said of him::"He never married; he had no country house; he looks, in his portraits, a fastidious, fine gentleman; but he worked till he dropped and he lectured when he was dying." [Garrison, Fielding H. 1914. "An introduction to the history of medicine". Saunders, Philadelphia. p269]

Later career

In 1764, he became physician to Queen Charlotte. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767 and Professor of Anatomy to the Royal Academy in 1768.

In 1868 he built the famous anatomy theatre and museum in Great Windmill Street, Soho, where the best British anatomists and surgeons of the period, including his brother John, were trained. His greatest work was "Anatomia uteri umani gravidi" [The anatomy of the human gravid uterus exhibited in figures] (1774), with plates engraved by Rymsdyk (1730–90), [Thornton, John L. 1982. "Jan van Rymsdyk: medical artist of the eighteenth century". Oleander Press, Cambridge.] 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 conserved in the Royal Collection at Windsor: Kenneth Clark considered him responsible for the Eighteenth-century rediscovery of Leonardo's drawings in England.

To aid his teaching of dissection, in 1775 Hunter commissioned sculptor Agostino Carlini to make a cast of the flayed but muscular corpse of a recently executed criminal, a smuggler. He was professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 1769 until 1772. [Kemp M (ed) 1975. "Dr. William Hunter at the Royal Academy of Arts". Glasgow.] He was interested in arts, and had strong connections to the artistic world.

In 1770 he built himself a house in Glasgow fully equipped for the practice of his science, and this formed the nucleus of the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.

An avid coin and book collector

William Hunter was an avid antique coin collector and the Hunter Coin cabinet in the Hunterian Museum is one of the world's great 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 and the bibliophile Thomas Crofts. King George III even donated an Athenian gold piece.

When the famous book collection of Anthony Askew, 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.

He died in 1783, aged 64, and was buried in London at St James's, Piccadilly.

Anecdote

He used to relate the following anecdote: During the American war, he was consulted by the daughter of a peer, who confessed herself pregnant, and requested his assistance; he advised her to retire for a time to the house of some confidential friend; she said that was impossible, as her father would not suffer her to be absent from him a single day. Some of the servants were, therefore, let into the secret, and the doctor made his arrangement with the treasurer of the Foundling Hospital for the reception of the child, for which he was to pay. The lady was desired to weigh well if she could bear pain without alarming the family by her cries; she said "Yes," and she kept her word. At the usual period she was delivered, not of one child only, but of twins. The doctor, bearing the two children, was conducted by a French servant through the kitchen, and left to ascend the area steps into the street. Luckily the lady's maid recollected that the door of the area might perhaps be locked; and she followed the doctor just in time to prevent his being detained at the gate. He deposited the children at the Foundling Hospital, and paid for each. The father of the children was a colonel of the army who went with his regiment to America and died there. The mother afterwards married a person of her own rank.

References

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id = PMID:14508042
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14508042
last=Buchanan
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publication-date=2003 Oct
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pages=F76-7

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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11639996
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volume=20
issue=3
periodical=Adler Museum bulletin
pages=24-5

*Citation
id = PMID:11616172
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11616172
last=Kemp
first=M
publication-date=1992 Jan
year=1992
title=True to their natures: Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr William Hunter at the Royal Academy of Arts.
volume=46
issue=1
periodical=Notes and records of the Royal Society of London
pages=77-88

*Citation
id = PMID:2185812
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2185812
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year=1990
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publication-date=1987 Dec
year=1987
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*Citation
id = PMID:3888326
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3888326
last=Herschfeld
first=J J
publication-date=1985 Apr
year=1985
title=William Hunter and the role of "oral sepsis" in American dentistry.
volume=33
issue=1
periodical=Bulletin of the history of dentistry
pages=35-45

*Citation
id = PMID:11622001
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11622001
last=Philipp
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publication-date=
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title=William Hunter: anatomist and obstetrician supreme.
volume=44-45
issue=
periodical=Huntia; a yearbook of botanical and horticultural bibliography
pages=122-48

*Citation
id = PMID:11617139
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11617139
last=Porter
first=R
publication-date=1983 Sep
year=1983
title=William Hunter, surgeon.
volume=33
issue=
periodical=History today
pages=50-2

*Citation
id = PMID:6351897
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6351897
last=Thornton
first=J L
last2=Want
first2=P C
publication-date=1983 Sep
year=1983
title=William Hunter (1718-1783) and his contributions to obstetrics.
volume=90
issue=9
periodical=British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
pages=787-94

*Citation
id = PMID:6990856
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6990856
publication-date=1980 Mar
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issue=2
periodical=Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
pages=146-9

*Citation
id = PMID:628557
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/628557
last=Kapronczay
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publication-date=1978 Mar 5
year=1978
title= [The Hunter brothers: William Hunter (1718), John Hunter (1728-1793)]
volume=119
issue=10
periodical=Orvosi hetilap
pages=598-600

*Citation
id = PMID:347937
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/347937
last=Longo
first=L D
publication-date=1978 May 1
year=1978
title=Classic pages in obstetrics and gynecology. On retroversion of the uterus. William Hunter. Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. 4, pp. 400-409, 1771.
volume=131
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periodical=Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol.
pages=95-6

*Citation
id = PMID:327974
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/327974
last=Chitwood
first=W R
publication-date=1977 Jul
year=1977
title=John and William Hunter on aneurysms.
volume=112
issue=7
periodical=Archives of surgery (Chicago, Ill. : 1960)
pages=829-36

*Citation
id = PMID:782049
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/782049
last=Forbes
first=T R
publication-date=1976 May
year=1976
title=Death of a chairman: a new William Hunter manuscript.
volume=49
issue=2
periodical=The Yale journal of biology and medicine
pages=169-73

*Citation
id = PMID:4564592
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4564592
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publication-date=1972 Dec
year=1972
title=William Hunter: lessons to be learned from congenital heart disease.
volume=100
issue=12
periodical=Medical times
pages=107-8 passim

*Citation
id = PMID:4932920
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4932920
last=Illingworth
first=C
publication-date=1971 Jun
year=1971
title=The erudition of William Hunter. His notes on early Greek printed books.
volume=16
issue=6
periodical=Scottish medical journal
pages=290-2

*Citation
id = PMID:4870514
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4870514
publication-date=1968 Feb 19
year=1968
title=William Hunter (1718-1783) anatomist, physician, obstetrician.
volume=203
issue=8
periodical=JAMA
pages=593-5

*Citation
id = PMID:13838001
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13838001
last=THOMAS
first=K B
publication-date=1960 Jul
year=1960
title=A female foetus, drawn from nature by Mr. Blakey for William Hunter.
volume=4
issue=
periodical=Medical history
pages=256

*Citation
id = PMID:13632205
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13632205
last=MORRIS
first=W I
publication-date=1959 Jan
year=1959
title=Brotherly love; an essay on the personal relations between William Hunter and his brother John.
volume=3
issue=1
periodical=Medical history
pages=20-32

*Citation
id = PMID:13467308
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13467308
last=KERR
first=J M M
publication-date=1957 Sep
year=1957
title=William Hunter; his life, personality and achievements.
volume=2
issue=9
periodical=Scottish medical journal
pages=372-8

*Citation
id = PMID:13468030
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13468030
last=OPPENHEIMER
first=J M
publication-date=1957 Aug
year=1957
title=John and William Hunter and some eighteenth century scientific moods.
volume=25
issue=2
periodical=Transactions & studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
pages=97-102

*Citation
id = PMID:13002276
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13002276
last=BALL
first=O F
publication-date=1952 Nov
year=1952
title=John and William Hunter. II.
volume=79
issue=5
periodical=Modern hospital
pages=87-9

*Citation
id = PMID:12992956
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12992956
last=BALL
first=O F
publication-date=1952 Oct
year=1952
title=John and William Hunter. 1.
volume=79
issue=4
periodical=Modern hospital
pages=86-8

*Citation
id = PMID:14772509
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14772509
last=RUDOLF
first=C R
publication-date=1950 Oct 14
year=1950
title=A new portrait of William Hunter.
volume=2
issue=4684
periodical=British medical journal
pages=886

External links

* [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/3/3/11330/11330-h/11330-h.htm www.gutenberg.org] .
* [http://www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk/collections/summary/museum/medicine_anatomy.shtml Hunter's anatomical collections]

Persondata
NAME=Hunter, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=anatomist
DATE OF BIRTH=May 23, 1718
PLACE OF BIRTH=East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
DATE OF DEATH=March 30, 1783
PLACE OF DEATH=


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