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HISTOKY OF DENTAL SUKGEEY 67

not his purpose to do this witli a view to pecuniary gain, since the time tlius
expended might be employed mucli more jjrofitably in extending his con-
nections and in enlarging his practice. He spent the year 1761-2, after
having been in practice ten years, by attending the British army as a sur-
geon in Portugal, without which experience he said he should have been
unable to give an opinion concerning gun shot wounds, which rarely occur
in civil practice. After Jiis return he resumed the teaching of practical
anatomy, became a fellow of the Itoyal Society in 1767, and also the nucleus
of a small club that read and criticized eacli other's papers liefore these were
submitted to the general body. This association proved of great value in
expanding Hunter's mind and activities. He seems to have been singularly
devoted to the piirsuit of science, and especially physiological researches, and
gathered a very extensive museum, which evidenced not only iiis jiersever-
ance, but also his genius.
He congratulated himself on having declined, in 1768, to l)ecome a
teacher of anatomy, as that would have prevented him from giving his gen-
eral attention to surgery, and he felt that the reading that would have been
imposed upon Iiini M-ould liave jirevented him from establishing modes of
thinking, but above all he says he was induced to lecture because of the ad-
vantage it gave him to put his thoughts into writing, and that a man never
realizes how much he knows until lie an-anges his knowledge, and then he
can tell how defective it is, and, Ihei'cl'orc, it is, he says, that all authors of
any consideration in physic have been public teachers.
He became a fellow of the I7oyal Society, but never received the '"doctor's"
degree. The plain title of "Mister" alone distinguishes him, altliough he
held a commission as surgeon in the British army and distinguished himself
by his scientific and surgical aliility at Belle Isle. His collection of anatom-
ical preparations and his ol)Servation of pathological conditions formed the
basis upon which he constructed tlie principles which he taught. It is said
of him that "whether under the tuition of his brother, or struggling for
independence by privately teaching anatomy, or amidst the enticements to
idleness in a mess-room, or as an army surgeon in active practice, he never
seems to have forgotten that science was the chief end of his life."
His professional income was small, and only until a few years before his
death did it reach a respectable sum. His museum was purchased bv the
government for fifteen thousand pounds, only a fraction of its real value. Tt
was tendered the College of Physicians, which declined the trust, and was
then committed to the College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Tnn Fields, where
it