KEY SOURCES

Publications of John Hunter Mentioned in the Notes

The Natural History of the Human Teeth: Explaining Their Structure, Use, Formation, Growth, and Diseases (London: printed for J. Johnson, 1771).

“On the Descent of the Testis,” in William Hunter, Medical Commentaries (London: A. Hamilton, 1762; and S. Baker and G. Leigh, 1777).

A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Teeth; Intended as a Supplement to the Natural History of Those Parts (London: printed for J. Johnson, 1778).

A Treatise on the Venereal Disease (London: privately printed, 1786).

A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation and Gun-shot Wounds, by the Late John Hunter (London: George Nicol, 1794).

The Works of John Hunter, ed. James Palmer, 4 vols. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Breen, 1835).

Observations and Reflections on Geology (London: Taylor and Francis, 1859).

Essays and Observations on Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology and Geology, ed. Richard Owen, 2 vols. (London: Van Voorst, 1861).

Letters from the Past, from John Hunter to Edward Jenner, ed. E. H. Cornelius and A. J. Harding Rains (London: Royal College of Surgeons of England, 1976).

The Case Books of John Hunter FRS, ed. Elizabeth Allen, J. L. Turk, and Sir Reginald Murley (London: Royal Society of Medicine, 1993).

Biographies of Hunter Mentioned in the Notes

Adams, Joseph, Memoirs of the Life and Doctrines of the Late John Hunter (London: J. Callow, 1818).

Dobson, Jessie, John Hunter (Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone, 1969).

Foot, Jessé, The Life of John Hunter (London: T. Becket, 1794).

Home, Everard, “A Short Account of the Life of the Author,” in A Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation and Gun-shot Wounds, by the Late John Hunter (London: George Nicol, 1794).

Kobler, John, The Reluctant Surgeon: The Life of John Hunter (London: Heinemann, 1960).

Ottley, Drewry, “The Life of John Hunter, FRS,” in The Works of John Hunter, ed. James Palmer, vol. 1 (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Breen, 1835).

Paget, Stephen, John Hunter, Man of Science and Surgeon (London: Fischer Unwin, 1897).

Peachey, George C., A Memoir of William & John Hunter (Plymouth: Brendon, 1924).

Qvist, George, John Hunter 1728–1793 (London: W. Heinemann, 1981).

Abbreviations for Sources Used in the Notes

British Library: BL
The Hunter Album, RCS: HA
The Hunter-Baillie Collection (at RCS): HBC
John Hunter: JH
Loudoun Papers (at RCS): LP
Royal College of Surgeons of England: RCS
The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine: WL

Hunter Sites

Scotland

John Hunter’s birthplace at Long Calderwood is preserved as a museum, the Hunter House Museum, which provides information on his life and the development of modern surgery. The Hunter House Museum, 126 Maxwellton Road, East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, G74 3LR, tel. 441355 261261.

In East Kilbride, the Hunter brothers are remembered in the Hunter Primary School, Hunter High School, Hunter Health Centre, Hunter Street in the old East Kilbride village, and The Hunters pub in Stewartfield.

London

John Hunter’s collection of anatomical specimens and naturalist items is housed in the Hunterian Museum at the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Of the original fourteen thousand preparations, more than half were destroyed in an air raid in 1941, while others have not withstood the ravages of time. Today about 3,500 survive, including the specimens displaying his successful popliteal aneurysm operations and the skeleton of the Irish giant Charles Byrne. The museum reopened after refurbishment in 2005. Hunterian Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, 35–43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PE, tel. 4420 7405 3474.

A bust of John Hunter stands in Leicester Square, opposite the site of his former house at number 28, which is now a pub, The Moon Under Water. A blue plaque denotes his former house at 31 Golden Square. William Hunter’s Great Windmill Street school is now the rear of the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue.

A Note on Money

Making direct financial comparisons between the eighteenth century and modern times is not straightforward. As a rough guide, the Bank of England (Retail Price Index, October 2003) estimates the following:

£1 in 1750 would be worth £81.63 today.
£1 in 1760 would be worth £71.69 today.
£1 in 1770 would be worth £61.05 today.
£1 in 1780 would be worth £60.24 today.
£1 in 1790 would be worth £53.70 today.

A guinea was equivalent to 21 shillings, so, for example, 5 guineas was worth £5 5s.