The anatomical and pathological preparations of Dr. William Hunter in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow / by John H. Teacher, M.A., M.B., C.M.

  • Teacher, John H. (John Hammond), 1869-1930.
Date:
[1901]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The anatomical and pathological preparations of Dr. William Hunter in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow / by John H. Teacher, M.A., M.B., C.M. 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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    The overhauling has meant remounting nearly all the pre- parations, and mounting many which had never been mounted before. It was no small labour; nor was the disturbing of the old preparations a matter to be undertaken lightly, but it has been managed without mishap, and it has greatly improved the appearance of the collection. All the new catalogues are founded on those that were prepared during the lifetime of William Hunter, either by himself or by others working under his direction. The old ms. catalogue of the anatomical collection was published by the University in 1841; copies of the volume are not rare; it was sold at a shilling, and constituted a sort of perpetual admission ticket to the museum. In the new catalogue all that appeared to be valuable in the old has been embodied. At the same time great additions have been made in the way of altogether new or of more detailed descriptions, records of microscopic examinations, and references to and extracts from literature connected with the preparations—principally the writings of Hunter himself, but also those of John Hunter, Hewson, Cruikshank, and many others of less note. The collection has also been completely rearranged. The old order, where there was any attempt at order, was unsatisfactory; the rearrangement, which is naturally more or less provisional and temporary, brings the order of the collection into harmony with that in which the subjects illustrated are usually treated now; in this way, with the aid of the table of contents and index, it should be easy to find specimens of any kind that a person might wish to consult, or to say where a new specimen should be inserted. The museum copies are interleaved, so that descriptions of new preparations may be inserted as they are obtained. Thus, in these volumes there will always be descriptions of all the preparations in the collection, and the issue of a supplement when a sufficient number of these should have accumulated would be at any time a very simple matter. The collection as now laid out contains about three thousand three hundred preparations—a collection of moderate size; but it is the quality of the preparations that is most remarkable. Nearly all of them have been beautifully finished, artistically mounted, and really illustrate what they were intended to show.