John Hunter
13 February 1728 – 16 October 1793
John Hunter was a Scottish surgeon and anatomist, one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day and an early advocate of careful observation and experiment in medicine. He built a vast collection of anatomical specimens that became the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Among his students was Edward Jenner, the pioneer of smallpox vaccination.
Lived at the same time
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Life events
John Hunter was born at Long Calderwood in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, the youngest of ten children of a farming family.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter moved to London to assist his elder brother William Hunter as a dissector in his celebrated anatomy school in Covent Garden, where he quickly proved a gifted anatomist.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter trained under the leading surgeons William Cheselden at Chelsea Hospital and Percivall Pott at St Bartholomew's Hospital.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter served with the British Army at Belle Île and in Portugal, gaining experience of gunshot wounds that informed his later treatise on blood, inflammation, and gunshot wounds.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter was elected FRS in recognition of his anatomical and physiological investigations.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter became surgeon at St George's Hospital, where he taught and took on house pupils, including the young Edward Jenner.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter married Anne Home, a poet whose verses were later set to music by Haydn; the couple had four children, two of whom survived infancy.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter was named surgeon extraordinary to the king, and in 1790 became surgeon general of the army.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAt his premises in Leicester Square, Hunter built a vast teaching collection of anatomical and natural-history preparations, purchased by the government after his death and housed as the Hunterian Museum.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHunter, who suffered from angina, died of a heart attack during a heated dispute at a board meeting at St George's Hospital; he was later reinterred in Westminster Abbey.
Source: en.wikipedia.org