Hunterian oration : the Hunterian oration, (February 14th, 1851,) that would have been delivered by a Member of the College of Surgeons, of London, if permission had been granted to him by the President and Council.

  • Crisp, Edwards, 1806-1882.
Date:
[1851]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hunterian oration : the Hunterian oration, (February 14th, 1851,) that would have been delivered by a Member of the College of Surgeons, of London, if permission had been granted to him by the President and Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    “ Instead of receiving favor and protection at the hands of government, such institutions (the Colleges of Surgeons and Physicians) should for ever have been expunged from the statute book, as a disgrace alike to the profession and the nation which tolerated them.” Although, as I said before, I regret exceedingly the cause that has deprived you of the orator of your choice, I do not regret that we are not to have a “thoroughly Hunterian” lecture. The subject is thread- bare ; even beauty palls upon the sense; and the eloquent and soft-toned voice that repeats the same tale year after year appears inharmonious and discordant. I think I can hear the great man whose eulogy will form but a small part of this oration, exclaim, “Talk not annually of my labors, but what account can you give of your own stewardship? How have you discharged the trust you have elected yourselves to? Have you endeavoured to find out nature’s secrets? Are you the working bees of the college hive ? Have you not yet learned that the very basis and foundation of surgery is a knowledge of medicine, and that disease and death know no “grades?” John Hunter, the great man whose merits I have heard sounded sixteen or seventeen times in this theatre, was born in Scotland, February, 1728 ; he was one of ten children, five of whom died young. John was born when his father had reached his seventieth year. I am sure this fact will be pleasing to some of the reverend looking gentlemen I see before me! Hunter’s education, like that of Shakspeare’s, had been greatly neglected; he was but imperfectly acquainted with his mother tongue; the classics were to him sealed books, and so plebeian was his taste, that he said to Sir A. Carlisle, when speaking of his friends who were desirous of sending him to Oxford, “ they wanted to make an old woman of me; or that I should stuff Latin and Greek at the University; but, (added he significantly pressing his thumb nail on the table,) these schemes I cracked like so many vermin as they came before me.” Had Hunter been acquainted with modern languages, like some of those I see present, he might have quietly profited by the scientific labors and discoveries of our neighbours ; but wanting these resources he was compelled to depend upon his own exertions; to draw his deductions from the work of his own hands ; to think and judge for himself. As there is some obscurity about the history of the early part of the life of our immortal bard ; so is that of Hunter involved in mystery. It is tolerably certain, however, that at the age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Mr. Buchanan, of Glasgow, a carpenter and cabinet-maker. He worked at this trade for some time, and it is probable, that when his brother-in-law got into difficul- ties, that he superintended the business. Dr. Johnson has said, that the only high road a Scotchman knows, is the road to England. Hunter’s brother William was, fortunately for him, in London, and required an assistant in his dissecting-room. John was offered the post, and came at once to the Metropolis. Mr. Lawrence in his memorable oration of 1846, told you that he rode to London on horseback, a statement I am not able to verify. I now pause a moment for the purpose of asking, what I fear will be considered by my upper-grade auditors, some very vulgar questions.