Volume 1

Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum.
Date:
1833-1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Descriptive and illustrated catalogue of the physiological series of comparative anatomy contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    includes 3745 anatomical specimens of that kind which require the utmost skill and science in their preparation, and the greatest care and expense in their preservation. That Mr. Hunter, however, regarded it but as an approximation to an adequate display of the general plan which pervades organic nature, is to be inferred, from the earnest assiduity with which, to the last day of his existence, he laboured towards its perfection. Some deficiencies he has himself noted, and occasionally has in- dicated the animal in which would probably be found the intermediate gradation of structure necessary to complete a series. The additions, therefore, have been prepared in exact accordance with those indica- tions, and always, it is hoped, in harmony with the Founder's original design. As it is important to the history of physiology, and just to the me- mory of Mr. Hunter, to maintain the integrity of his Collection, these additions are so marked that they are at once readily distinguished from the Hunterian specimens, and the original condition and con- nexion of the latter left undisturbed. They bear the same numbers (but in a different colour,) as the Hunterian specimens which they respectively follow, and are further distinguished by an added letter. These additions include, among other interesting specimens, parts of those remarkable animals which have been discovered, and the anatomy of which has been recorded in the Philosophical Transactions, since the decease of Mr. Hunter, as, e.g., the Ornithorhynchus, Echidna, Dugong, Squalus maximus, &c.; and the names of the individuals to whom science is indebted for these preparations are subjoined to their respective descriptions. b 2