Chapter XLV · (continued 2)

“Nevertheless, though we cannot estimate the full extent of his labours, enough remains to entitle him to a place in the highest rank as a natural philosopher.”¹

¹ Hunter’s Works, Volume I., pages 48, 135‒136.

A good edition of Hunter’s works, in four volumes, edited with notes by Mr. James F. Palmer, and illustrated by a volume of plates, in quarto, was published in 1835‒37. John Hunter was probably the greatest physiologist that Britain has produced, taking into account the extensive series of preparations contained in his museum and his writings. In reference to comparative anatomy Richard Owen said in 1837: “It appears to me that he marks a new epoch in its history, and that the historian of the natural sciences has just and sufficient grounds for regarding Hunter as the first of the moderns who treated of the organs of the animal body under their most general relations, and who pointed out the anatomical conditions which were characteristic of great groups or classes of animals; as one, in short, throughout whose works we meet with general propositions in comparative anatomy, the like of which exists not in the writing of any of his contemporaries or predecessors, save in those of Aristotle.”¹

¹ Preface to Hunter’s Treatise on the Animal Economy, Hunter’s Works, Volume IV., page 11.

In conclusion, the rise and progress of medical science in Scotland has been narrated in sufficient detail to indicate what she has contributed to this branch of knowledge; while the gradual development of the three centres or schools of medicine has been shown. The great work for medical science in the future will be sanitary progress and hospital organisation; in short, the exercise of medical knowledge and skill to prevent disease of every description.