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TWO 
 
 INTRODUCTORY LECTURES^ 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 Dr. WILLI A M H U N T E R, 
 
 1 
 
 TO HIS LAST COURSE OF 
 
 ANATOMICAL LECTURES, 
 
 AT HIS 
 
 THEATRE IN WINDMILL-STREET: 
 
 As they were left correded for the Press by himfelf,. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
 
 Some PAPERS relating to Dr. HUNTER’s intended 
 PLAN, for eftablifhing a M’U S E U M in LONDON,. 
 
 FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF 
 
 ANATOMY,. S U P G E R Y, and P H Y S I C. 
 
 ■ 
 
 '>• 
 
 Printed by Order of t-H . E S, FOR J. pO H N S O N,, 
 
 No. 72, St. 'CK-Yard, London. 
 
 M.DCC.LXEX-IV.- 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
 N A T O M Y is the art of examining animal bodies by 
 
 diffedtion. It teaches the Ilrufture and fundlions of 
 
 thofe bodies, and fhews nearly on what life and health depend. 
 When thefe are well underftood, a great ftep is made towards 
 the knowledge and cure of difeafes. 
 
 The word Anatomy is originally Greek, llgnifying dilTedion 
 or cutting : but we are not to imagine from the etymology, 
 that Anatomy means no more than the bare management of the 
 knife, feiflars, or other cutting inftruments, upon dead bodies. 
 The ancients, indeed, meant little more by it ; this being al- 
 moft their only method of inveftigation : but in our days, it 
 
 taken in a much more comprehenfive fenfe. Thus injeding, 
 macerating, corroding, boiling, diftilling, in a word, every 
 operation by which we endeavour to difeover the ftrudure and 
 ufe of any part of the body, is anatomical. 
 
 As every animal body is the fubjed of Anatomy, we divide it 
 into the human and compart-:! / .. The firft of thefe is confined 
 to the human body, the xtended to the whole animal 
 
 creation. The humar^Ana what we propofe to explain: 
 
 the comparative will only, ..troduced occafionally, where 
 
 it 
 
 
r 4 ] 
 
 it ferves to illuflrate the other, or to guide us in reafoning 
 from analogy. The ftrudture of fome parts may be fo delicate, 
 or involved, in the human fpccies, as to be undifcoverable ,* yet 
 in another fpecles, the hrufture of thofe very parts may be 
 apparent. Accordingly, many things have been firft difcovered 
 in comparative Anatomy, and were afterwards found out in 
 the human body. Even monfters, and all uncommon, and all 
 difeafed animal productions, are ufefuHn anatomical enquiries 5 
 as the mechanifm, or texture, which is concealed in the ordinary 
 fafhion of parts, may be obvious in a preternatural compofition- 
 And it may be faid, that nature, in thus varying and multiply- 
 ing her productions, has hung out a train of lights that guide 
 us through her labyrinth. 
 
 Anatomy, like molt arts, has undergone many revolutions^^ 
 having been in high credit in fome ages and countries, and 
 keenly purfued ; and on the contrary, in others, it has been as 
 much neglected or depreffed. It would be prepofterous to give 
 a long detail of its hlftory, in the beginning of a courfe of lec- 
 tures, becaufe a beginner in this fludy, will hardly be able to 
 remember by whom, and under what circumftances this, or 
 that difcoverj, or improvement, was made, when from his 
 ignorance of the fubjeCt, he cannot be fuppofed to know,, 
 what fuch difcoveries really were. Wherefore, w’e fhall referve 
 molt of the hlftory, to be thrown in with the Anatomy, by 
 faying fomething of the principal improvers, and WTiters on the 
 feveral parts, as we go on. At prefent we fhall be fatisfied 
 with a general fketch of its ori;;ia '■■n 1 progrefs. 
 
 The want of records, lea i.i the dark, with regard to 
 
 the origin of this art ; yet, . reafonabie to conclude, that 
 like moil other arts, it had no precife beginning. The nature 
 
 _ ii-L5 ^ 
 
of the thing would not admit of its lying for a time altogether 
 concealed, and of being fuddenly brought to light, either by 
 chance, or genius, or induflry. 
 
 All the ftudies and arts which are in human life, 
 
 are fo interefling and obvious, that man in every fituation, - 
 has always by inftindt and common fenfe turned his thoughts 
 to them, and made fome progrefs in the cultivation of them. 
 
 To talk ferioufly of the invention of agriculture, building, 
 or architecture, aftronomy, navigation, mechanics, phyfic, fur- 
 gery, or anatomy, by fome particular man, or in one particular 
 country, or at a time fubfequent to fome prior aera, would be 
 to difcover great ignorance of human nature. We might juft 
 as well fuppofe that, till a certain period of time, man was 
 without inftinClive appetites, and without obfervation and re- 
 flection j and that, in a happy hour, he found out the art of 
 fupporting life by taking food. All fuch arts, in a lefs or 
 more cultivated ftate, were from the beginning, and ever muft 
 be found in all parts of the inhabited world. 
 
 The firft men who lived, muft have foon acquired fome 
 notions of the ftruCture of their own bodies, particularly of 
 the external parts, and of fome even of the internal, fuch as 
 bones, joints,'' and finews, which are expofed to the examination 
 of the fenfe* in living bodies. 
 
 This rude knowledge muft have been gradually improved, by 
 the accidents to which the body i*s expofed, by the ne- 
 ceflities of life, and by the various cuftoms, ceremonies and 
 Cuperftitions of different nations. Thus, the obfervance of 
 bodies killed by violence, attention to wounded men, and to 
 many difeafes, the various ways of putting criminals to death, _ 
 
 B 2 
 
 the 
 
[ 6 ] 
 
 the funeral ceremonies, and a variety of fuch things, muft 
 have fhewn men, every day, more and more of themfelves ; 
 efpecially as curiofity and felf-love would urge them powerfully 
 to obfervation and refledlion. 
 
 The brute-creation having fuch an affinity to man in out- 
 ward form, motions, fenfes, and ways of life ; the generation 
 of the fpecies, and the effe(ft of death upon the body, being 
 obferved to be fo nearly the fame in both, the conclulion was 
 not only obvious, but unavoidable, that their bodies were 
 formed nearly upon the fame model. And the opportunities 
 of examining the bodies of brutes, were fo eafily procured, 
 indeed fo necelfarily occurred in the common bulinefs of life, 
 that the huntfman in making ufe of his prey, the prieft in 
 facrificing, the augur in divination, and above all, the butcher, 
 or thofe who might out of curiofity attend upon his operations, 
 mufi: have been daily adding to the little flock of anatomical know- 
 ledge. Accordingly we find, in fait, that the South-fea-iflanders, 
 who have been left to their own obfervation and reafoning, 
 without the affiftance of letters, have yet a confiderable fhare of 
 rude, or wild anatomical and phyfiological knowledge. When 
 Omai was in this Mufeum, with Mr. Banks, though he could 
 not explain himfelf intelligibly, we plainly faw that he knew 
 the principal parts of the body, and fomething likewife of their 
 ufes ; and manifefted a great curiofity, or defire of having the 
 fundlions of the internal parts of the body explained to him 5 
 particularly the relative fundions of the two fexes, which, with 
 him, feemed to be the mod: objed of the human 
 
 mind. 
 
 We may further imagine thit the philofophers of the mod 
 early ages, that is, the men of curiofity, obfervation, experience, 
 
 andi 
 
[ 7 3 
 
 and refle<fHon, could not overlook an inftance of natural organi- 
 zation, which was fo interefting, and at the fame time fo 
 wonderful j more efpecially fuch of them as applied to the ftudy 
 and cure of difeafes. We know that phyfic was a branch of 
 philofophy till the age of Hippocrates. 
 
 Thus our art muil; have been circumftanced in its beginning. 
 We (liall next fee from the teftimony of hiftorians and other 
 writers, hov/ it adually appeared as an art, from the time that 
 writing was introduced among men ; how it was improved, and 
 conveyed down to us, through a long feries of ages. 
 
 From all that is known of the Chinefe hiftorv, there is no- 
 reafon to imagine that any great event had ever happened, to 
 overwhelm the inhabitants with ignorance and barbarity, 
 after they had been enlightened with fcience. And therefore, 
 from the prefent ftate of that country, even after fome inter- 
 courfe with Europeans for two hundred years, we may con- 
 clude, that they never went very far into any branch of 
 philofophy. In Anatomy and phyfic, they feem to be /wt? or 
 three thoufand years behind us. Their anatomical figures, as 
 we fee in Cleyer, and in a colledion in my library, are as 
 rude, as what v/e might fuppofe any common butcher would 
 exprefs by a drawing. And a great part of their phyfic feems 
 to be an undigefted fyftem of credulity in the virtues of 
 plants, without any fenfible diftindtion of difeafes. I have 
 lately feen a fplendid book of the Chinefe plants that are 
 moft famous for medicinal virtues, which was fent over, as 
 a valuable prefent, to one of our Eaft-India Dire<flors. The 
 plants are delicately drav/n, and pencilled in natural colours. 
 The names, the ufual places of growth and culture, and the 
 virtues in the cure of difeafes, are written under each plant, 
 
 in 
 
[ 8 ] 
 
 in Chlnefe charaders, and in Englifli. Mofl; of the plants are 
 direded to be given in the form of tea, or infulion. 0 ?ie is 
 faid to be good for hiu'ard diforders, ajiotJjer for inward fwell- 
 ings j one for internal bruifes, another for bruifes in the limbs, , 
 and outhde of the body ; one is good for the eyes, another for 
 deafnefs, another for complaints in the liver; one is good for 
 fat people, another for thofe who are thin ; and, there is a 
 very curious plant indeed, if the tranllator has done juftice 
 to the original, it is good for people who are flethy on one 
 fide and lean on the other. Probably the Chinefe exprelTion 
 meant the Hemiplegia, or palfy, which affeds one half of 
 the body, while the other half remains in a healthful and 
 vigorous date ; yet admitting this fuppofition, and admitting 
 likewife that the author might be a good botanift and inge- 
 nious artift, without being much fkilled in phyfic, ,his man- 
 ner of treating the fubjed puts us very much in mind of 
 John Gaddefden’s notions about difeafes and cures, in the 
 barbarous times, 1320, of Edward the fecond, which are put 
 into fd" ridiculous a light by Dr. Freind, in his hiftory of 
 phyfic. 
 
 Civilization and improvements of every kind, would natu- 
 rallv beo;in in fertile countries and healthful climates, where 
 there would be . leifure for refledion, and an appetite for 
 amufement. It feems now to be clearly made out, that writing, 
 and many other ufeful and ornamental inventions and arts 
 were cultivated in the eaftern parts of Afia, long before the 
 earlieft times, that are treated of by the Greek, or other 
 European writers ; and that the arts and learning of thofe 
 eaftern people, were, in fubfequent times, gradually commu- 
 nicated to adjacent countries, efpecially by the medium of 
 traffic. In that way fcience feems to have travelled over our 
 
 hemifphere. 
 
[ 9 3 
 
 hemifphe’re, from the Eaft, through Perfia, Medea, Chaldasaj^ 
 Phoenicia, ^gypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Italy, and the whole 
 Rotnan empire. And, within lefs than 300 years ago, European 
 fcience made a pulh weftwards, exceeding every thing that has 
 been recorded in the annals of time j it dared to go in fearch 
 of another hemifphere, found it, and took polTeffion of the 
 whole. And it muft be comfortable to all men of liberal minds,, 
 to think, that from the univerfality of the prefent empire of 
 fcience, we might even flatter ourfelves with faying, of EngliJlj 
 fcience, arts, and language, hardly any event can now overturn 
 it, till the final catafirophe comes round. 
 
 The cufioms, fuperftitions, and climate of eaftern countries, 
 appear to have been as unfavourable to practical Anatomy, a& 
 they were inviting to the ftudy of aftronomy, geometry,, poetry,, 
 and all the fofter arts of peace. 
 
 With regard to aftronomy, my excellent friend, Mr. Secretary- 
 Wood, as well as other travellers, informed me, that in Syrian 
 and in the adjacent eaftern countries, the air is fo dry, and the- 
 fky fo tranfparent and ferene, that, for the greatefl: part of the 
 year, the people lleep on the top of their houfes, having no- 
 thing interpofed between them and the firmament, which, from 
 the purity of their atmofphere, is befpangled with ftars, of 
 brighter luflre than we can well conceive,, from what we are 
 accuftomed to fee in this country, . ^ 
 
 Under fuch favourable circumfiances for aftronomical obfer- 
 vations, the inhabitants muft have made conliderable advances 
 in aftronomy, at a very early period. The fixt ftars would be 
 obferved to keep a fleady, unchangeable fituation with refpeft to 
 each other 3, and to have a regular diurnal motion with refpedt 
 
 to 
 
[ >° ] 
 
 o this earth : the moon and other planets, would be dldingulilied 
 from the fixed flars, by the changes in their fituation with refpedt 
 to one another. All the fleeplefs hours of all the inhabitants* 
 would be, of courfe, beflowed on the fpangled firmament : fo 
 tliat afironomy mull have been gradually improved, from the 
 firfi: time of thole countries being inhabited. 
 
 It is jufi: as natural to fuppofe, that the variety of thefc 
 heavenly lights, would tempt men to diftinguifh them into 
 clafies, and try to afcertain their number, as well as to give 
 dilHnguifhing names both to the clafies and to the inditiduals. 
 Arithmetic would, of courfe, likewife become a nodlurnal em- 
 ployment with mofi; of the inhabitants; and they would be 
 driving who could count the greatefi; numbe*r of liars. 
 
 Mr. Wood obferved further, that thefe peculiarities of eaftern 
 Ikies, convinced him of the true reafon why the people of the 
 Eafi:, have been fo conftantly prone to worlhip the hofts of 
 heaven. He faid he found himfelf, in the night, fo fiiruck with 
 the beauty of the firmament, that he could hardly fupprefs a 
 notion that thefe bright objeds were animated beings of fome 
 very high order, and were Ihedding fome important influence on 
 this earth, and upon every living creature in it. From this 
 effed upon himfelf, he was fure that at all times in thofe 
 countries, the minds of men mufl: have had a tendency to that 
 fpecies of fuperftition ; efpecially when ficknefs and difeafe, 
 through long fleeplefs nights, would work upon their mind 
 with the fear of being incurable by human art, of their fuf- 
 ferings being fent upon them by fome offended divinity as 
 a punifliment ; all which would naturally dired: their fuper- 
 Jflitious expiations and prayers to thofe heavenly lights. 
 
 In 
 
t I! ] 
 
 In eafterii countries too, but particularly in y^^gypt, where 
 'the falling of rain, and fubfequent fwelling of rivers, happens 
 only at one particular feafon, mens attention would be called 
 to lludy and watch the feafons, to meafure the depth of v/ater, 
 the extention of the inundation, the quantity of ground that 
 would be fertilized, &c. &c.Thefe peculiarities of their lituation, 
 would lead the inhabitants, in the earlieft ages, to the fludy and 
 pradice of geometry. 
 
 But in thofe eaflern countries, animal bodies run fo quickly 
 into naufeous putrefadlion, that the early inhabitants mud: have 
 avoided fuch offenfive employments as anatomical enquiries, 
 like their pbfterity at this day. And in fadl, it does not appear, 
 by the writings of the Grecians, or Jews, or Phoenicians, or of 
 other eaflern countries, that Anatomy was particularly chltivated, 
 by any of thofe eaflern nations. In tracing it backwards to its 
 infancy, we cannot go farther into antiquity, than the times of 
 the Grecian philofophers. As an art in the flate of fome cul- 
 tivation, it may be faid to have been brought forth and bred up 
 among them, as a branch of natural knowledge. 
 
 The aera of philofophy, as It was called,' began with Thales 
 the Milefian being declared by a very general confent of the 
 people, the mofl wife of all the Grecians, 480 years before 
 Chrift. ' 7 "he philofophers of his fchool, which was called the 
 Ionian, cultivated principally natural knowledge. Socrates, 
 the feventh in fucceflion of their great teachers, introduced the 
 fludy of morals ^ and was thence faid to bring down philofophy 
 from heaven, to make men truely wife and happy*. 
 
 C His 
 
 * Of his fchola.rs, Ariflippus founded the Cyrenalc fefl, Euclid the Megaric 
 Phjedo the Eliac, Antifthenes the Cyaic, and Plato the Academic. 
 
[ 12 - ] 
 
 His fcholar and fiicceffor, Plato, fpent his whole life, firft 
 in acquiring wifdom and knowledge himfelf, and then in teaching 
 it to others. He carried the reputation of the Lycseum, the 
 public fchool at Athens, to the higheft pitch of credit. No- 
 thing, perhaps, contributed more to incite, to polidi, and to 
 raife the minds of the Grecians, to that diflinguiflied rank of 
 excellence which all fucceeding ages have allowed them to have 
 pofTefled, than their public fchools, and particularly thofe at 
 Athens ^ where perfuafive eloquence was much lludied and ho- 
 nored, and made ufe of upon the mod intereding occafions, for 
 the recommendation and embellilhment of all the nobler virtues.. 
 Young men had eafy accefs to the converfations and harangues of 
 the mod eloquent, the mod learned, and the mod refpecdable 
 men among the Athenians. It is as eafy to conceive, what a. 
 wonderful effedl that mud have had upon young and generous 
 minds, as the faft is unquedionable, that the Grecians excelled 
 all mankind in elegant fimplicity and in grandeur of thought y 
 and of courfe, in all the fine arts. 
 
 In the writings of Plato we fee, that the phllofophers had 
 carefully confidered the human body, both in its organization 
 and functions and though they had not arrived at the know- 
 ledge of the more minute and intricate parts, which required 
 the fuccedive labour and attention of many ages, they had made 
 up very noble and comprehenfive ideas of the fubjedlin general. 
 The anatomical defcriptions of Xenophon and Plato have had 
 the honor of being quoted by Longinus, (§.xxxii.) as fpecimens 
 of fubllme writing ; and the extradl from Plato is filll more re- 
 markable for. its containing the rudiments of th@ circulation of 
 the blood. “ The heart, fays Plato, is the centre or knot of 
 the blood-vefiels j the fpring or fountain of the blood, which^ 
 is carried impetuoufly round j the blood is the pabulum or 
 
 food: 
 
 
[ 13 ] 
 
 food of the fleili ; and for the purpofe of nourithment, the 
 body is laid out into canals, like thofe which are drawa 
 “ through gardens, that the blood may be conveyed, as from 
 ** a fountain, to every part of the pervious body." 
 
 Hippocrates was nearly contemporary with the great phiiofo- 
 phers of whom we have been fpeaking, about 400 years be- 
 fore the Chridian sera. He is faid to have feparated the pro- 
 feffion of philofophy and pnyfic, and to have been the nrfr who 
 applied to phyfic alone, as the bufinefs of his life. He is 
 likev>dfe generally fuppofed to be the hrft who wrote upon ana- 
 tomy. We know of nothing that was written exprefsly upon 
 the fubjeift before ; and the firH; anatomical dilTedtion which has 
 been recorded, was made by his friend Democritus, of Ab- 
 dera. 
 
 After the redoration of Greek learning in the fifteenth century, 
 it was fo fafhionable, for two hundred years together,-J:o extol 
 the knowledge of the ancients in Anatomy, as in other things, 
 that Anatomifts feem to have made it a point of emulation, who 
 fhould be mod lavidi in their pralfe; fome from a diffidence in 
 themfelves ; others through the love of detracting from the 
 merit of contemporaries; many from having laborioufly dudied 
 ancient learning, and having become enthufiads in Greek litera- 
 ture j but more, perhaps, becaufe it was the fafhionable turn 
 of the times, and was held up as the mark of good education 
 and fine tade. 
 
 If we read the works of Hippocrates with impartiality, and 
 apply his accounts of the parts, to what we know of the 
 human body, we mud allow his defcriptions to be imperfeCt, 
 incorred, fometimes extravagant, and often unintelligible, that 
 
 C 2 of 
 
[ H 3 
 
 of the bones only excepted. He feems to have ftudled tliefe 
 with more fuccefs than the other parts, and tells us that he 
 had an opportunity of feeing an human flieleton. 
 
 Here we may obferve, that the working up of any complex 
 fcience or art, fo- as to reduce it to a tolerable fyllem is a 
 more arduous tafk, and requires much more time, and the 
 colledted obfervations of a much greater number of men, event 
 through a fucceflion of ages, than could well -be imagined by 
 any perfon,. who knows it only in an improved ftate. We 
 might fay of improved fcience and art, what has been frequently 
 faid of particular difcoveries, when known y it appears to be 
 fo eafy or obvious, that one wonders it had not been made one 
 or two thoufand years fooner. 
 
 From Hippocrates to Galen, who flourilhed towards the end 
 of the fecond century, in the decline of the Roman empire, 
 that is, in the fpace of 600 years. Anatomy was greatly improved 
 the philofophers ftill confidering it as a mod; curious and inte- 
 refting branch of natural knowledge, and the phyhcians as a 
 principal foundation of their art. Both of them, in that in- 
 terval of time, contributed daily to the common Idock, by more 
 accurate and extended obfervations, and by the lights of im- 
 proving philofophy. 
 
 To trace our art, with learning in general, from the times of 
 Hippocrates to that of Galen, we fhall give a iketch of the 
 fludies at the two famous fchools «among the Greeks, viz. at 
 Athens, and at Alexandria ; and of the introduction of Greek 
 literature among the Romans. 
 
 At 
 
[ 15 ] 
 
 At Athens, Ariftotle, the favourite pupil of Plato, gave him- 
 felf up to philofophy and phyfic ; and was appointed a public 
 teacher at the Lycsum, at the memorable period when Grecian 
 liberty was giving way to the power of Macedon. He was pa- 
 tronized by Philip, and made tutor to Alexander. He was a 
 man of great natural acutenefs, improved by very extenfive and 
 deep fludy ; of a courtly turn for elegance and expence, and 
 adapted as much as polilble, all his philofophy to his pupil, 
 and to the court. He was the firft we know of, who collected 
 a great library, which, with all his own compofitions, he left 
 to his favourite pupil, Theophradus 5 who, at his dcfire, fuc- 
 ceeded him as public teacher of philofophy' in the Lycsum, 
 with the fame turn for elegance, and with the highefc charac- 
 ter for natural acutenefs, and unremitting perfeverance in 
 fludy. 
 
 Thefe two great men lived in the mod perfect frienddaip 5 
 were very fimilar in their charadler, in their dudies and 
 purfuits : and as they had applied very particularly to the dudy 
 of animal bodies, they not only made great improvements, 
 efpecially in phydology, but raifed the credit of natural know- 
 ledge, and fpread it as v/ide as Alexander’s empire. 
 
 Few of Aridotle’s writings were made public in his life-time. 
 He adedled to fay that they would be unintelligible to thofe> 
 who had not heard them explained at his lectures : and, except 
 the ufe which Theophradus made of them, they were lod to 
 the public for above 130 years after the death of Theophradus ; 
 and at lad came out defedtive from bad prefervation, and cor- 
 rupted by men, who, without proper qualifications, pre- 
 fumed to corredl, and to fupply what was lod. For, Theo- 
 phradus left thefe, and his whole library, to one Neleus, of 
 
 Scepfis, 
 
[ >6 ] 
 
 Scepfis, who left them to his relations. Thefe hid them In 
 a cave, left their kings of Pergamus ftiould felze them for their 
 ovv^n library, which they were extending with emulous oppo- 
 fttion to that which the Ptolemies were collecting with fo much 
 ambition at Alexandria. The books were at laft taken out, but 
 mucli damaged, by the proprietors the heirs of Theophraftus, 
 and fold for a great fum of money to Apellico of Teium, who 
 was buying up libraries at that time. This library foon 
 afterwards was feized upon by S^ylla, and fent to Rome. 
 
 From the time of Theophraftus, the ftudy of natural know- 
 ledge, at Athens, was for ever on the decline ; and the repu- 
 tation of the Lycteum and Academy was almoft confined to the 
 ftudies which are fubfervient to oratory and public fpeaking. 
 
 We may eaftly conceive, that ftudy in general muft hav’-e been 
 much Interrupted at Athens, by the great ftruggle which was 
 maintained for liberty, before that city fell under the calm 
 and fettled government of the Romans. In the times of Philip 
 the father of Perfeus, the Athenians having made an alliance 
 with the Romans, that king attempted to furprize Athens. 
 He failed ; and being exafperated, reduced to rubbifti and ruin, 
 the Lycaeum, the facred groves, many temples, tombs, &c. 
 and laid all the environs wafte j upon which the Athenians in 
 revenge, palled the memorable decree for deftroying all the 
 ftatues and inferiptions, which had been fet up in honor of 
 the Macedonian family. 
 
 At the breaking out of the Mithridatic war, about 87 years 
 before Chrift, Athens, by the contrivance of Arifteon, deferted the 
 Romans, her friends, and allies, and with moft of the Greek cities, 
 joined Mithridates. Syllawas feat into Greece : moft of the other 
 
 cities 
 
f '7 ] 
 
 cities fubinitted, but Athens flood an obllinate fiege. Archelaus 
 defended the Pirsus, and Arifleon Athens. Sylla’s army was fup- 
 ported by the facred treafures, taken by Lucullus from the tem- 
 ples of Delphi and Epidaurus. What remained of the trees 
 in the facred groves, was cut down to fupply warlike ma- 
 chines for carrying on the fiege. The town was at length 
 taken, pillaged, almoft deflroyed, and great numbers of the 
 'inhabitants put to the fword.. 
 
 After Athens had begun to flourifh again, under the pro- 
 tedtion of the Romans, very unfortunately it took part againfl. 
 Casfar, firfl; with Pompey, then with Brutus and Caffius, and 
 lafl of all with Marc. Anthony j for all which it felt the re- 
 fentment of Auguflus, and languifhed, till Hadrian reflored 
 it to its ancient government, and protedled the fchools ; foon,; 
 after whom, both Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Antoninus, 
 with- great partiality, encouraged fludies there, and gave falaries^ 
 to their profelTors. 
 
 So much 'for that famous feat of learning and elegance.- 
 The other great inflitution for Grecian education, was ar 
 Alexandria in ^gypt. That city, laid out, and begun to* 
 be built by Alexander himfelf, became, foon after his death, 
 the metropolis of a great and rich Greek empire. The 
 firfl Ptolemies, both from their love of literature, and to give true 
 and permanent dignity to their empire, and to Alexander’s 
 favourite chy, fet up a grand;” fchool in the palace itfelf,. 
 with a mufeum, and a library, which we may fay, has been 
 the moil famed in the world. It has been fuppofed to have 
 been founded by the firfc Ptolemy, when he had alTociated- 
 his fbn Philadelphus in the throne of yEgypt, and to have- 
 been put under the diredlion of Demetrius Phalereus. The- 
 
 hrilt 
 
[ i8 ] 
 
 fi'ift race of the Ptolemies, from their virtues, and love of 
 learning, were daily adding to the number of books in the 
 library, inviting and protedting men of eminence, in every 
 branch of literature, fcience, or art, and adding to the fplen- 
 dor of the fchools. This noble foundation grew to be fo 
 » much the pride and boaft of the empire, that Ptolemy Phyf- 
 con himfelf, one of the moft brutal and profligate of the 
 race, was fludious of patronizing learned men^ and fo earneft 
 in colledting books, that, in jealoufy of Eumenes, who was 
 colledling a fplendid library of the fame kind at Pergamus, 
 and the more certainly to preferve the fuperiority of the 
 Alexandrian library, he prohibited the exportation of iTgyptia/i 
 paper, Befides this great library in the palace, there was a 
 fecond colledted in the Serapion, or temple of Serapis. The'firft 
 was burnt when the Alexandrians attacked and befieged Ju- 
 lius Caefar in the palace. The fecond, which was preferved, 
 was in a fhort time enriched by the addition of the rival li- 
 brary from Pergamus^ confiding of 200,000 volumes, which 
 Anthony brought away, and prefented to Cleopatra. This 
 lad great collection of books differed greatly in the year 390, 
 when the temple of Serapis was dedroyed by the Chridian 
 zealot, the Patriarch Theophilus, at the fail of paganifm, 
 and dually and compleatly burnt by the Saracens, when 
 they took that city in the year 640. 
 
 After the fchools were opened at Alexandria, and protected 
 upon fo noble a plan, men of learning docked , thither, both 
 becaufe they would be encouraged and protected j whereas, 
 in Greece and in Ada, they were expofed to the endlefs ^ 
 horrors, oppredions, and ravages, occafioned by the con- 
 tentions and wars, which were carried on among the dic- 
 
 cedbrs 
 
’[ 19 3 
 
 c^fTors oT Alexander. In all thofe other extenfive countries, 
 the finer arts of peace were every day more interrupted or neg- 
 lected ; and at Alexandria, on the contrary, were daily rifing to 
 higher credit. In a fliort time this fchool became as much the 
 moft eminent for fcience, for every branch of natural know- 
 ledge, and for phyfic, as Aithens was for oratory. 
 
 The two diftinguiflied Anatomiils at Alexandria, v/ere 
 Erafiflratus, the pupil and friend of Theophraftus, and He^ 
 rophilus. Their voluminous works are all loft j but they are 
 quoted by Galen, almofl in every page. Thefe profeffors were 
 probably the firft who were authorized to diif at human 
 bodies ; a peculiarity which marks ftrongly the philofophical 
 magnanimity of the firft Ptolemy, and fixes a great sera in 
 the hiftory of Anatomy. And it was, no doubt, from this 
 particular advantage which the Alexandrians had above all 
 others, that their fchool not only gained, but for many cen- 
 turies preferved, the jirjl reputation for medical education. 
 Ammianus Marcellinus, who lived about 650 years after the 
 fchools were fet up, fays, they were fo famous in his time, 
 that it was enough to fecure credit to any phyfician, if he 
 could fay that he had ftudied at Alexandria. 
 
 Herophilus has been faid to have anatomized 700 bodies. 
 We muft allow for exaggeration. Nay, it was faid, that 
 both he and Erasiftratus made it a common pradice to 
 open living bodies, that they might difcover the more fecret 
 fprings of life. But this, no doubt, was only a vulgar opi- 
 nion, rifing from the prejudices of mankind ; and, accord- 
 ingly, without any good reafon, fuch tales have been told 
 of modern anatomifts, and have been believed by the vul- 
 gar. 
 
 D 
 
[ 20 J 
 
 In the period of the hiftory of our art, of learning and 
 arts in general, which we are now conhdering, viz. from 
 Ariftotle to Galen, we muft fee how the arts of Greece were 
 conveyed to the Romans : for, in the firh; part of that pe- 
 riod the Romans were barbarians, but in the laft they were 
 poliflied and learned, and v/ere become the fovereigns both 
 of Athens and Alexandria,- 
 
 Long after the Romans were become a great and formi- 
 dable ftate, they continued to be a rough unpoliihed people: 
 military glory was the great objecft of their ambition, and 
 the love of their country their principal virtue. Tlie foft 
 arts of peace, refinement and elegance, they defpifed, as 
 tending to enervate the mind, and to fupprefs that martial 
 enthufiafm which they cultivated with fo much ardor. And 
 their pride, or contracted felf-love, which we fee operating 
 in the fame manner.^ among modern nations, made them af- 
 fedl to defpife in others, what they themfelves had not been 
 happy enough to attain. 
 
 But when their empire grew to be extenfively refpedled 
 and dreaded, the Romans became connedted in alliances, dif- 
 putes, and wars, with the Grecian Rates, their neighbours . 
 particularly about the times of Pyrrhus, juft before the JirJi 
 Punic war, when they had driven him out of Italy, and 
 taken Tarentum, and fome other Greek cities, in that part 
 of Italy called Magna Graecia, about 274 years before Chrift. 
 This intercourfe gradually infpired the Romans with fome 
 tafte for the Grecian arts, and a defire of ftudying the lan- 
 guage of that highly cultivated people. In a little time 
 more, the Romans had got pofteffion of Meftana in Sicily, 
 and took Agrigentum by fiege ; and about 236 years before 
 
 Chrift, 
 
[ -21 ] ' ' 
 
 Chfift, at the end of the firfl Punic war, they had polTef- 
 fed themfelves of all Sicily, except Syracufe, which vvas under 
 the dominion of Hiero. 
 
 ' Two hundred and tw'enty-iix before Chrifi:, Roman ern^ 
 baffadors were fent to Athens and Corinth, upon the break- 
 ing out of the focial war between the iEtclians, fupported 
 by Philip, and the Ach^ans, protected by the Romans. 
 207 years before Chrift, they took Syracufe ; upon which all 
 Sicily having fabmitted became a Roman province. — 189 
 years before Chrift, a Roman army was fent into Alia, againft 
 Antiochus the Great, whofe rich fpoils being brought to 
 Rome, introduced a tafte for Afiatic luxury. — 165 years 
 before Chrift, they had reduced Macedon to a Roman pro- 
 vince, and from that country raifed a refpedtable library at 
 Rome 5 and their commiffioners fent 1000 of the principal 
 men of Achgea to be tried at Rome, where they were con- 
 demned, and difperfed over Italy, to different places of im- 
 prifonment. 
 
 About this time the Romans had a conftant and encreafing 
 intercourfe with the Grecians, by reciprocal complaints, ac- 
 cufations, pleadings, &c. in one of which Carneades, the 
 Athenian philofopher and orator, infpired the younger men, 
 efpecially of the Roman fenate, with the higheft veneration 
 for eloquence. The Romans every day treated the Grecians 
 with more imperioufnefs, till 146 years before Chrift, all 
 Greece was made a Roman province, in confequence of Mum- 
 mius defeating the Achgeans ; when Corinth, the feat of the 
 fineft arts, was plundered and burnt to the ground, and the 
 much valued pidlures and works in fculpture which it con- 
 tained, were conveyed to Rome. 
 
 D 2 
 
 All 
 
t 22 ] 
 
 Ali this neceflarlly-occafioned a conflant intercourfe, a. 
 mixture with the people, more intimate acquaintance with 
 their language and manners, and a relidt for their ftudiesj, 
 their elegant arts, and works of eyery kind. 
 
 The mold -difllngniflicd men in the Roman republic foon 
 courted the company and the inhrudlions of the Grecian 
 philofophers j even entertained them conftantly in their houfes, 
 for the fake of learning their language and their philofophy. 
 Scipio Africanus, Laslius, and Furius did fo, though Cato 
 the cenfor, drove the Grecian rhetoricians from Rome, be- 
 fore their bulinefs.was brought to a conclufion, for fear of 
 their corrupting, as he called it, the Roman youth, giving 
 them a turn for fpeaking rather than for acting, and diverting 
 them from the Rudy of the laws and cuRoms of their fore- 
 fathers. Such was hh averlion, and that of many leading 
 men at Rome, to Grecian mannero, that a rigid edid: was 
 twice paffed, to prohibit Latin rhetoricians from teaching their 
 art. 
 
 Lucullus, the conqueror of Macedon, was particularly de- 
 voted to Grecian learning, and had always fome of the moR 
 eminent orators and philofophers about him. He brought 
 home with him to Rome, both the books and the moR 
 enlightened men of Greece j and, vrhich was the moR truely 
 honorable part of his triumph, he made his own houfe their 
 afylum. Cicero likewife, by his attention to the learned 
 Greeks, and to their philofophy, contributed very much to 
 give them credit at Rome, 
 
 It 
 
[ . =3 ] 
 
 It was the weight and influence of thofe great characters, 
 which accomplifhed the transfufion of learning, philolophy 
 and arts, from the Grecians to the Romans, and gave rife 
 to the learning, the tafle and elegance of, the Auguflan 
 age. 
 
 But unfortunately the Romans did not adopt the Grecian 
 manner of educating their young men in public fchools at 
 home. They either fent them to fludy in Greece or had 
 private tutors in their families from,, that country. From 
 v/hich it is evident that among the Romans, good education 
 mufl have been confined to a few, in proportion to the Whole : 
 and it may be prefumed, that this was one reafon why they 
 fell fo far fliort of the Grecians as a learned and refined 
 people. The rich alone could get the bed: education ; and 
 no fortune could command the acquifition of more than 
 what continued to be taught at Athens and Alexandria, in ' 
 the time of the Roman emperors. But Grecian ftudies, and 
 all the ingenious and fine arts, were conflantly on the de- 
 dine from the time that Grecian liberty was loft. 
 
 In comparing the Romans with the Grecians, if we allow 
 them to have had fome poets, orators, philofophers, and 
 hiftorians, deferving to be brought into competition with 
 thofe of the Greeks, to the eternal difgrace of their empire, 
 it muft be allowed, that their hiftory is hardly embellifhed 
 with the name of a fingle Roman, who was great in fcience 
 or art, in painting, or fculpture, in phyfic, or in branch^ 
 of natural knowledge. And therefore we cannot introduce 
 o?2e Roman into the hiftory of Anatomy ; for, Pliny and Celfus 
 were mere compilers from the Greeks. 
 
 * Thefe 
 
" t 24 ] 
 
 Thefe hlftorical obfervatlons prepare us for an account of 
 Galen. He received a liberal education at Pergamus, the 
 place of bis birth; and began at 17 years of age to join the 
 ftudy of phyfic to that of philofophy. In his 21ft year, 
 A. D. 151, he went to Smyrna, where he likewife ftudied 
 both ; then to Corinth, to ftudy under Numefianus, a great 
 Anatomift of thofe times, and to many other parts of Greece 
 and Afia; and then to Alexandria, when the fchool was at 
 the higheft credit which it had ever attained under Roman 
 emperors. Claudius “had founded and given his name to a 
 new mufeum there, and appointed fome new le<itures. Adrian 
 had honored the fchools with his prefence, and had even 
 taken a lhare in the public difputations j and Antoninus 
 Pius had alfo fhewn particular favor to Alexandrian lludies. 
 
 At the age of 28 Galen returned, much improved in the 
 ftudies of his profeffion, from Alexandria to his native city 
 Pergamus, where he was charged with the care of the gla- 
 diators for fix or feven years. At 34 years of age, A.D. 164, 
 ho came to Rome, in the reign of Marcus Antoninus and 
 Lucius Verus; and acquired great fame with the people for 
 his cures and public difieftions, as well as much envy and 
 detradlion from the reft of the faculty, an honor commonly 
 enough bellowed upon diflinguifhed eminence. At the age 
 cf 37 he went home to Pergamus, that he might avoid a 
 great plague which then raged at Rome. Next year he was 
 called to Aquilea by the two emperors, and then to Rome- 
 he excufed himfelf from following the emperor to his wars ; 
 but remained at Rome, where he fpent much of his time 
 in fludy and writing. 
 
 For 
 
E *5 ] 
 
 For thofe tiifies his writings muft be allowed to be ex-- 
 eellent. What he principally wanted, to be truly refpedlable* 
 with regard to the more obvious parts of Anatomy, was, 
 opportunities of diffe6ling human bodies : for his fubjedl 
 was moft commonly fome quadrupedc whofe flrudture was 
 fuppofed to come nearefl to the human. 
 
 -1 
 
 Thus Anatomy, for a long feries of years, had been ad- 
 vancing to that degree of perfection, to which it was brought* 
 in Galen’s time ; and from that time, it declined again. 
 We may obferve, that when any man arrives at the reputa- 
 tion of having carried his art far beyond all others, it feems 
 to throw the reft of the world into a kind of defpair. Hopc- 
 lefs of being able to improve their art ftill further, they do 
 nothing. The great man, who was at firfl; only refpeCtable, 
 grows every day into higher credit j till at length he is de- 
 ified, and every page of his writings becomes facred and in- 
 fallible. This was actually the fortune of Ariftotle in phi- 
 lofophy, and of Galen in Anatomy for many ages, and fuch 
 refpeCl fhewn to any man, in any age, muft always be a 
 mark of declining fcience. 
 
 The ftudy of Anatomy, learning, and fcience in general, 
 met with great checks, and difcouragement, from the con- 
 fulions and diftrefiTes which attended the decline, the divifion, 
 (A. D.364) and the final fubverlion of the Roman empire. 
 With the lofs of their liberty, the Grecians firft, and then the 
 Romans, gradually loft vigor in all intellectual purfuits ; their 
 tafte for learning, and for every kind of excellence became 
 weaker and depraved; fpecious fophiftry, or unmeaning de- 
 clamation 
 
 / 
 
[ 26 i 
 
 claination took the place of good fenfe -and found jihilofo- 
 phy ; and where no improvement could take place, the arts 
 were for ever on the decline. In the year 269, the Goths 
 had pofTeded themfelves of Athens ; but they were foon driven 
 out of Greece by Claudius II. In the year 410, Alaric took 
 and pillaged both Athens and Rome, and dedroyed their li» 
 braries. In the year 455, Genferic, the Vandal, from Africa, 
 landed a great force at the m.outh of the Tiber, facked 
 Rome, and revenged Carthage. He carried off the portable 
 riches of Rome, and the invaluable works of art, which 
 had been accumulated in the capitol and in the temples, 
 from the fpoils of the innumerable nations which had been 
 conquered by the Romans. And the great irruption of the 
 Goths into Italy, in the year 476, put an end to every kind 
 «f liberal ffudy, and to the Roman empir*e itfelf in Europe. 
 
 The ignorance which came upon the whole world with 
 the fall of the Roman empire, and kept its poffeffion through 
 fo many grofs and difmal ages, was not brought on merely 
 by the irruptions of the northern barbarians into the weft, 
 and of the Saracens afterwards into the eaftern parts of the 
 Roman empire, which we ftiall prefently confider. Much 
 was owing to the unhappy contentions, and deftrudlive zeal 
 of religious feds, and to oppreffive perfecutions. The Jews 
 entertained a rooted averfion to Greek literature, and prohi- 
 bited the ftudy of it. The ftrft Chriftians were illiterate and 
 defpifed human learning. It was objeded to their dodrine 
 by Celfus, and all who oppofed it, that it was adopted only 
 by low mechanics and women. And, as oppofttion in reli- 
 gion creates unguarded zeal, the reflexions thrown out againft 
 thp new dodrines, by philofophers and men of learning, 
 
 made 
 
[ 27 ] 
 
 made the Chriftians- preach up their fyftem, as in its 
 ture oppoTite to, and rubverfive'of human learning. 
 
 In the fecond century the new fyflem, in oppofition to 
 Paganifm, began to prevail, and make profelites among men 
 of education. One fide faid that truth prevailed ; the other, 
 that the contagion of fanaticifm was growing incoerceable ; 
 the difpute gi'ew hotter, and brought on perfecution, which 
 made the converts more warm in vilifying and profcribing 
 all philofophy. What encreafed their hatred to philofophy 
 and Greek learning was, its .being fuppofed to be the fource 
 of all the herefies which fprang up is the church. This 
 particularly made them declamc with violence againft it. 
 Yet many of them allowed or recommended as much learning 
 as could be ufeful in the defence of their doflrine. How- 
 ever they were not merely ignorant in natural knowledge | 
 they held phyfics to be beyond human powers taught that 
 morals and religion were cur only objedts ; and ventured no 
 farther in natural knowledge than was revealed in holy writ. 
 When faith was thought to be all that v/as worth acquiring, 
 and prayer almoft our only duty, there was an end to liberal 
 education, and to every ingenious enquiry, infomuch that the 
 Goths, and other barbarians from the north, inflead of having- 
 introduced and eftabliflied ignorance in the weft, found no 
 learning where they came, but a debafed and corrupted 
 theology, which they adopted and propagated. 
 
 About the middle of the feventh century, what little learning 
 was ftill left in Alia and iTgypt was almoft extinguifhed by 
 the bigotted, illiterate, and barbarous Saracens, the converts 
 to Mohammed. In the year 640, they made themfelves mafters 
 of Alexandria, which had continued to be the greateft fchool, 
 
 E and 
 
[ 28 ] 
 
 and contained In books the greateft treafures In the world, 
 for about 900 years together. They not only put an im- 
 mediate flop to all liberal ftudles thei^, but deflroyed the fa- 
 cred remains of all human learning, by burning the whole 
 of that invaluable library; profeffing as an excufe for the horrii 
 deed, that if the books contained only what was in the Ko- 
 ran, they were ufelefs ; and impious If they contained more 
 than what the prophet had thought proper to be revealed 
 to man. 
 
 In Mohammed’s time, very few of the Arabs could read 
 or write. He could do neither; but made ufe of a fcribe, 
 Warakanus, a relation of his wife, in com poling the Koran; 
 and that human erudition might not difcover its weaknefs, 
 he made a law, by which it w^as death for any Muffulman 
 to learn the liberal arts. The Koran was a compilation from 
 Chrlftianity and other religions, but principally from Juda- 
 ifm.. 
 
 In lefs than 100 years after Mohammed (622) became a Calif,, 
 the Saracens had conquered all the countries round Arabia, 
 Syria, Phcnicia, Paleftine, j®gypt,. all the Coafl: of Africa 
 towards the Mediterranean, and Spain; and as they had fuc- 
 ceeded in their attempt upon the weftern part of Europe, 
 by eroding the Mediterranean from Africa, in the year 71 1,. 
 and feizing upon Spain, fo they attempted to break in upon 
 the eaftern part of Europe, in a few years after, by coming 
 over the Hellefpont, and laying fiege to Conilantinople. 
 
 But here. Providence was pleafed to put a hop to their 
 fucceJles, and to fet bounds to the devaftations and murders,, 
 which they were daily committing upon learning. In the year 
 
[ 29 ] 
 
 717* they were forced to raile that fiege with great lofs ; which, 
 event was perhaps more important for learning, than any 
 that has happened fince the days of Adam. For, as the Sa- 
 racens at firft extinguiflied all liberal fliidies wherever they 
 conquered and fettled ,• and as the Gothic tribes had already done 
 fo, over the whole of the weflern empire, there was only 
 Conftantinople, with the neighbouring provinces, left, where 
 learning could live i and there it was fortunately preferved for 
 us, though in a languidiing and corrupted hate, through 
 feven long centuries, of almofl univerfai barbarity and igno- 
 rance. 
 
 Yet, after the rage of the Saracens for conqueft began to 
 be fatiatedj and when they found themfelves firmly fettled in 
 their eahern acquifitions, their Califs began to be fenfible 
 of the great advantage of learning, in many branches of arts 
 and fcience, and particularly in phyfic. The great fuperiority 
 of the Chrihian phyficians was evident, or confefiTed. They 
 were therefore proteded and employed about the court; and 
 their influence grew in proportion to the fuppofed importance 
 of their fervice. That influence was judicioufly and honor- 
 ably employed in the caufe of liberal hudies, and, by de- 
 grees getting the better of Mohammed’s prohibition, infpired 
 the Califs with the love of letters. 
 
 In 762, Almanfor built Bagdad, and made it the feat oi 
 the Saracen empire. He had two Chriftian phyficians and 
 an afirologer, who gave him a keen tafte for the arts. He gave' 
 large premiums for tranflations of the Greek writers, both into 
 Syriac, the vernacular language at Bagdad, and into Arabic. 
 Thefe were principally executed by the Chriftians at Bagdad; and 
 mofl: of the Arabic verfions were made from the Syriac. For 
 
 E a this 
 
f 3<5 ] 
 
 this reafon the Syriac verfions were the beil; and becaufe 
 they were likewife the earliefl:, and were therefore made, when 
 the Greek language was better underflood. 
 
 Rasjidus, who began his reign about the year 786, encou- 
 raged Greek literature among his fubjecfls, and efpecially po- 
 etry i but he was too fuperilitious. 
 
 But under his fecond fon Abdalla or Mamon, who became 
 Calif, Anno 813, the arts flourifhed more than ever, and 
 flill by the influence of the Chriflian phyficians. Of thefe Jo- 
 annes Mefne the older, a Chaldean, came to fludy the arts 
 and medicine at Bagdad ; got the diredlion of the hofpital 
 there, and taught philofophy and phyfic in Syriac, with great 
 reputation. Honain, an Arab, but Chriflian, was his fcholar. 
 Upon being expelled the fchool, Honain retired among the 
 Greeks two v/hole years, and came back to Bagdad with- 
 a very good knowledge of the Greek language, and well 
 provided with Greek authors, where he and his family tranf- 
 lated the befl writers in phyfic, mathematics, and aferonomy. 
 Abdalla invited and protedled all forts of learned men ; en- 
 quired after the befl Greek authors, fearched Syria, Arme- 
 nia, and /Egypt, for copies of them, and had them ^ tranf- 
 lated. 
 
 In his wars and treaties with the Greek or eaflern em- 
 pire, he pradlifed every art to bring away their, learned men, 
 and their books. He lived to the year 833, when there, 
 were flourifhing fchool s at Bagdad, Couffa, Bafora, Darnaf- 
 cus, and ail the great cities of the Saracen empire, whiclii 
 were encouraged by feveral of his fucceffors. 
 
'[ 31 3 
 
 Leo Africanus tells us cf moft magnificent buildings, the 
 old public fchools, for all branches of learning at Cairo,, 
 Morocco and Fez ; but he fays, the princes and profeffors 
 of the faith, from about forty years before, had prevented 
 teaching philofophy, mathematics, and aftrology. 
 
 The Saracens, who came into Spain, deftroyed at hrfl all 
 the Greek books which the Vandals had fpared but though 
 their government was in a ccnflant flruggle and fludluation 
 during Boo years before they w'ere driven out, they received 
 a tafte for learning from their countrymen of the eaft j fe- 
 veral of their princes encouraged ^liberal fludies ; public fchools 
 were fet up at Cordova, Toledo, and other towns, and tranf- 
 lations of the Greeks into Arabic, were univerfally in the hands 
 of their teachers. 
 
 Thus w’as the learning of the Grecians transferred to the 
 Arabians. But though they had fo good a foundation to build 
 upon, our art was never improved while they were mailers 
 of the v/orld ^ and no wonder. They were fatished with com- 
 menting upon Galen ; and, I believe, made no diffedlions of 
 human bodies. 
 
 Upon this queflion I fhall only obferve, that fo far as I‘ 
 have had occafion to confult the Arabic writers, no clear- 
 proof of their having done fo has occurred to me.. And if 
 they had done fo, in fuch a quantity of writings as they 
 have left, we fhould, no doubt, have met with a hundred prooft 
 of the fadl. Abdollaliph, w^ho was himfelf a teacher of Anato* 
 my, a man eminent in his time, (at and before 1203) for his 
 learning and curiofityj a great traveller, who had been bred at 
 Bagdad, and had feen many of the great cities and principal places 
 
 fen- 
 
 
[ 32 ] 
 
 for ifudy in the Saracen empire; who had a favourable opinion 
 of original obfervation, in oppofition to book-learning; who 
 boldly corredled fome of Galen’s errors, and was peiTaaded 
 that many more might be detedled ; this man, 1 fay, never 
 made, or faw, or feemed to think of a human dilTedfcion. He 
 difcovered Galen’s errors in the ofteology, by going to bury- 
 ing-grounds, with his ftudents and others, where he examined 
 and demonflrated the bones ; and he earnedly recommended 
 that method of feudy, in preference even to the reading of 
 Galen ; and thought that many farther improvements might 
 be made; yet he feemed not to have an idea that a frefh 
 fubjeft might be diffedted with that view. 
 
 Perhaps the Jevvifla tenets which the Mohammedans adopted 
 about uncleannefs and pollution, might prevent their handling 
 dead bodies ; or their opinion of what was fuppofed to pafs 
 between an angel and the dead perfon, might make them 
 think difturbing.the dead highly facrilegious. Such how- 
 ever as Arabian learning was., for many ages together, there 
 was hardly any other in all the wefiiern countries of Europe. 
 It was introduced by the eftablifhment of the Saracens in 
 Spain, in yti, and kept its ground till the redoration of 
 learning in the end of the 15th century. The date of Ana- 
 tomy in Europe, in the times of Arabian induence, may 
 be feen by reading a very diort fydem of Anatomy, drawn 
 up by Mundinus, in the year 1315. It was extraded principally 
 from what the Arabians had preferved of Galen’s dodrine ; 
 and, rude as it is, in that age, it was judged to be fo maf- 
 terly a performance, that it was ordered by a public decree, 
 that it diould be read in all the fchools of Italy ; and, it ac- 
 tually continued to be almod the only book, which was 
 .read upon the fubjed, for above 200 years. Cortefius gives 
 
 him 
 
[ 33 ] 
 
 Bim the credit "cf being the great reftorer of Anatomy, and 
 the firft who diffedled human bodies among the moderns* 
 Notwithhanding this, and other refpedlable teftimonies in his 
 favor, were I to judge of his rank by the work itfelf, I 
 ihould, without hefitation, place him rather in the end of 
 the dark ages, than in the beginning of the more enlight- 
 ened. 
 
 Before we take leave of the Saracens, in the hiftory of 
 our art, it is but juflice to acknowledge, that however de- 
 ftrudtive their new fuperftition was, in its nature, to human 
 learning, that had been reduced to fo abjed; a. condition 
 in the eaft, . when the Saracens made their firft appearance 
 upon the great ftage of the world,, that little more mifchief 
 remained for them to do, than that of deftroying all the 
 books which were no longer read; and this finiftiing blow 
 their fuperftitious brutality gave with a vengeance. 
 
 In the latter half of the thirteenth century, the Arabian 
 learning was- loft in the eaft by the conquefts of the more 
 barbarous Turks, v/ho railed the Ottoman, upon the ruins of 
 the Saracen empire. They took Bagdad in the year 1258, 
 and at once put an end to every kind of ftudy, in that 
 famous feat of empire, where, but a fhort time before, there 
 were reckoned to he 6000 learned, men in the fchools. 
 
 In the fourteenth century, learning began to dawn in Eu.- 
 rope, efpecially in Italy, where a tafte for literature was riling,' 
 which was foon afterwards rewarded or gratified with the full, 
 reftoration of the ancient Grecian learning. 
 
 As 
 
[ 34 ] 
 
 As with individuals,, fo it is with large focieties of men, 
 and with nations ; what feems pregnant v/ith deftrudlion and 
 mifery, fometimes proves a great bleffing. Had not the Sa- 
 racen etfipire been overturned by the Turks, probably Europe 
 would have been hill overwhelmed in ignorance. The bar- 
 barous Turks put an end to Arabian government, and Arabian 
 hudies, fixing the' citadels of ignorance, defpotifm, and op- 
 preffion, wherever they conquered and fettled. Ccnftantino- 
 ple, and the neighbouring Greek cities, contained the fmall, 
 but precious remains of the Grecian language, learning and 
 arts. The Turks furrounded them, reduced them gradually 
 to greater difirefies, and at laft by hacking Confiantinople 
 with fuperftitious rage and mercylefs daughter, threatened 
 the final extindlion of all the lights, which that mod; inge- 
 nious of all people had fet up. 
 
 But Providence had ordered that this dreadful revolution 
 fhould have the contrary effed:. The danger which furrounded 
 that devoted people, forced them to implore the protection 
 of the pope, and Chriftian princes of the weft ; and their 
 diftreffes and prayers procured a fy mpathizing compafiion. 
 
 In 1 3'Sy, Chryfoloras, a learned and fenfible Grecian, was 
 fent as an embaffador, to manage that important bufinefs at 
 the different courts; and conduded himfelf with fo much 
 diferetion, as to ingratiate himfelf Vv^herever he came. Juft 
 at this time Tamerlane gained his great vidory over Bajazet, 
 Sultan of the Turks, and made him prifoner. 
 
 This event relieved the Greeks from immediate apprehen- 
 fions j and Chryfoloras fettled in Italy, where he had been 
 fo well received. Pie taught the language, and explained the 
 
 dodrines 
 
[ 35 ] 
 
 dodrlnes of the bell ancient Greek authors, to a great 
 number of hudious Italians at Venice, Florence, Rome, and 
 Pavia; which, with the joint labour and'influence of his fcho- 
 lars, for he lived and laboured till 1414, foon difrufed an in- 
 fatiable third for that dudy, over the wdiole country. 
 
 Upon the great catadrophe, many of the Greeks, efpecially 
 thofe with cultivated minds, w'ho were lefs difpofed to, bear 
 the infults and cruelties of barbarians, fled for protection to 
 Venice, Padua, and other adjacent dates, and brought their 
 manufcripts with .them, jud at the time when Greek litera- 
 ture was fo much coveted in Italy. Pope Nicolas V. the ce- 
 lebrated family of Medicis at Florence, and fome other princes, 
 made noble exertions for improving fo favourable an oppor- 
 tunity. By their example, their munificent patronage, and 
 recommendations, the Greeks, who had come among them, 
 were liberally fupported, more were invited, and Lafcar, one , 
 of them, was fent back into Greece, at a very great expence, 
 to buy up all the Greek manufcripts that could be found. 
 His collection at this day makes a very valuable part of the 
 Florentine library. 
 
 Of the learned Greeks who came over, the principal were 
 Pletho, Beflarion, Geo. Trapezuntius, Gaza, Argyropilus, and 
 Lafcar; and among the Italians, the principal fcholars at that 
 time were, F'icinus, Poggius, Politianus, Philelphus, Valla, 
 Hermolaus Barbarus, Leonardos Brunus Aretinus, and many 
 others. Thefe were immediately employed in tranflating and 
 explaining the bed Greek authors. And, as if Providence 
 had meant to fliew haw quick the tranfltion might be, jud 
 at this time, the invaluable art of printing was invented or 
 
 F divulged; 
 
[ 36 ] 
 
 divulged } and thereby all the remaining treafures of ancient 
 Greece and Rome, were prefently fprcad over Europe^ 
 
 In looking over the birth of fclence and tracing its pro- 
 grefs at different periods, through different countries, it can- 
 not efcape obfervation, how much all the enlightened parts 
 of the Vv'orld owe to the people of Greece. They were 
 twice totally conquered, we may fay ruined ; and at their 
 fall, each time, they transferred their learning to the Italians j 
 and each time the Italians conveyed it over the world. At 
 this hour it is the great enjoyment and comfort of all Europe, 
 and of many parts of Afia, Africa, and America. 
 
 The latter half of the fifteenth century was the mofl Ex- 
 traordinary for great events that is to be found in hifdory. 
 In that time there was a full reftoration of ancient learning; 
 printing was invented ; a navigable pafiage v/as difcovered 
 to the Eaft-Indies j and Columbus found out the other half of 
 the terraqueous globe. 
 
 When we refledl upon the great events of the fifteenth 
 century, it might be thought wonderful, that Italy, at that 
 time the great fountain of fuperftition, fhould have been f rfc 
 fmitten with the love of ancient learning and liberal fludies^ 
 It was principally owing to the fituation, the great power, 
 and extenfive commerce of Venice: and there were fome fa- 
 vourable peculiarities for inviting the Italians to fuch Eudies. 
 
 In the £rft place, the ftupendous and enchanting remains 
 of the ancient arts, muft have given an Italian, who had any 
 
 foul. 
 
f 37 ] _ 
 
 foul in ^his body, a veneration for antiquity, a curlofity about 
 it, and fome degree of information likewife. The number- 
 lefs infcriptions which he would meet with, and fome 
 of them upon fuch noble works of art, would both whet 
 his defire for more knov/ledge of that kind, and be a daily 
 exercife in language. He would neceffarily grow up with fome- 
 thing of a fine tafle for architedlure and fculpture, and, as all 
 the arts are allied, a tafte for one of them would beget a tafte 
 for them all. When he refiecled upon w'hat Italy mud: have 
 been in former times, the amor -patrics would add to the 
 enthufiafm of an Italian. Then, Italy being the feat of papal 
 hierarchy, to w'hich ail the Latin or weftern church W'as 
 fubjeft, it was the great centre for information, and correfpond- 
 cnce, for ecclefiatic applications and preferments j and there- 
 fore the rendezvous of the moft learned, and mod: acute men 
 of all Europe. 
 
 In tracing the great revolution of learning, which happened 
 in the fifteenth century, I am enabled to carry the hidory 
 of the improvement of Anatomy farther back than has been 
 generally done by our own writers j and to introduce into 
 the annals of our art, a genius of the fird rate, Leonardo 
 da Vinci, who has been overlooked, becaufe he was of another 
 profedion, and becaufe he publifhed nothing upon the fub- 
 jed. I believe he was, by far, the bed Anatomid and phy- 
 dologid of his time ; and that his mader and he, were the 
 very fird who raifed a fpirit for anatomical dudy, and gave 
 it credit : and Leonardo was certainly the fird man we know 
 of who introduced the pradice of making anatomical draw- 
 ings. 
 
 F 2 
 
 ValTare, 
 
[ 38 ] 
 
 Vaffare, in his lives of the painters, fpeaks of Leonardo 
 thus, after telling us that he had compoied a book of the 
 Anatomy of a horfe, for his own ftudy, “ He afterwards ap- 
 “ plied himfelf with more diligence to the human Anatomy, 
 in which fiudy he reciprocally received and communicated 
 afiidance to Marc. Antonio della Torre, an excellent phi- 
 “ lofopher, who then read leftures in Pavia, and wrote upon 
 
 “ this fubjedl; and who was the fird, as I have heard, 
 
 “ who began to illuflrate medicine from the dodtrine of 
 Galen, and to give true light to Anatomy, which till that 
 “ time had been involved in clouds of darknefs and ignorance. 
 In this he availed himfelf exceedingly of the genius and 
 “ labour of Leonardo, v/ho made a book of dudies, drawn 
 ** with red chalk, and touched with a pen, with great dili- 
 gence of fuch fubjedts as he had himfelf diffedted ; where 
 
 “ he made all the bones, and to thofe he joined, in their 
 
 “ order, all the nerves, and covered them wjth the mufcles. 
 And concerning thofe, from part to part, he wrote remarks 
 “ in letters of an ugly form, which are v/ritten by the left 
 hand, backwards, and not to be underftood, but by thofe 
 who know the method of reading them; for they are hot 
 to be read W'ithout a looking-glafs. Of thefe papers of 
 the human Anatomy, there is a great part in the poffedion 
 “ of M. Francefco da Melzo, a Milanefe gentleman, who, in 
 the time of Leonardo, was a mod beautiful boy, and 
 much beloved by him, as he is now a beautiful and genteel 
 old man, who reads thofe waitings, and carefully preferves 
 them, as precious relidls, together with the portrait of Leo- 
 nardo, of happy m.emory. It appears impoffible that that 
 divine fpirit diould reafon fo well upon the arteries, and 
 mufcles, and nerves, and veins j and with fuch diligence 
 of every thing, 
 
 There 
 
[ 39 ] 
 
 Thofe very drawing and the v/ridng, are happily found 
 to be preierved in his Majefty’s great colledtion of original 
 drawings. Mr. Dalton, the King’s librarian, informed me of 
 this, and at my requeft procured me the honor of leave to ex- 
 amine them^. I expedled to fee little more than fuch de- 
 figns in Anatomy, as might be ufeful to a painter in his own 
 profeffion. But I faw, and indeed with aftonifhment, that 
 Leonardo had been a general and a deep flndent. When I 
 conbder what pains he has taken upon every part of the body, 
 the fuperiority of his univerfal genius, his particular excellence 
 in mechanics and hydraulics, and the attention with which fuch 
 a man would examine and fee objedls which he was to draw, I 
 am fully perfuaded that Leonardo was the beft Anatomift, at 
 that time, in the world. We mud: give the fifteenth century 
 the credit of Leonardo’s anatomical lludies, as he was fifty- 
 f.ve years of age at the clofe of that century. 
 
 In due time, as I doubt not of being honoured with the 
 permiffion of the King, who loves and encourages all the arts, I 
 hope to engrave and publilli the principal of Leonardo’s ana- 
 tomical defigns. They will be a curious and valuable acqui- - 
 fition to the hiftory of Anatomy. 
 
 In 
 
 \ 
 
 * This colleftion makes one large and thick folio, in old Morocco binding, with 
 
 the following infcription, printed in gold capitals, on each fide of the cover, 
 
 \ 
 
 DISEGNI DI LEONARDO DA VINCI 
 RESTAVRATI DA POMPEIO LEON I. 
 
 which authenticates the colledlion ; for, in a note upon the life of Leonardo, Du Pile 
 tells us, from a latin manufcript of Rubens, then in his hands, among other things, 
 what follows, “ Rubens enlarges on Leonardo’s Ikill in Anatomy. He adds a particular 
 “ relation of his Undies, and of all the defigns which he made, which Rubens had 
 “ feen among the curiofities of Pompeio Leoni, at Arezzo, who had all his defigns.” 
 
[ 4 ° ] 
 
 In the beginning of the fixteenth century, Achllllnus and 
 Benedldus, but particularly Berengarius and Mafia followed 
 out the improvement of Anatomy in Italy, where they taught 
 it, and publiflied upon the fubjedl^h Thefe firfl; improvers made 
 fome difcoveries from their own difiedions : but it is not fur- 
 prizing that they fhould have been diffident of themfelves, and 
 have followed Galen almoft blindly, when his authority had 
 been fo long eflablifhed, and when the enthufiafm for Greek 
 authors was rifing to fuch a pitch. ' 
 
 Soon after this, we may fay about the year 154:0, the 
 great V^efalius appeared. He was fludious, laborious, and am- 
 bitious. From Bruffels, the 'place of his birth, he went to 
 Louvain, and thence to Paris, where Anatomy was not yet 
 making a confiderable figure ; and then to Louvain to teach, 
 from which place, very fortunately for his reputation, he 
 was called to Italy, where he met with every opportunity 
 that fuch a genius for Anatomy could defire, that is, books* 
 fubjcds, and excellent draughtfmen. Lie was equally laborious 
 in reading the ancients, and in diffeding bodies. And in 
 making the comparifoti, he could not but fee, that there was 
 great room for improvement, and that many of Galen’s de- 
 fcriptions were erroneous. When he was but a young man, he 
 publiffied a noble fyftem of Anatomy, illufirated with a great 
 number of elegant figures. 
 
 In 
 
 * Cortefiiis, who muft have been well informed of the date of Anatomy in Italy, gives 
 Eolognia the honour of reviving and improving Anatomy, firR by Mundinus, and then 
 by Berengarius ; both profelTors there, both dilTedlors of human bodies, and both au- 
 thors, as he efteems them, of the firR clafs. 
 
[ 41 ] ■ 
 
 In this work he found fo many cccafions of corredling 
 Galen, that his ■contemporaries, partial to antiquity, and 
 jealous of his reputation, complained that he carried his turn 
 for improvement and criticifrns to licentioufnefs. The fpirit 
 of oppofition and emulation was prefently rouzed ; and Syl- 
 vius in France, Columbus, Fallopius, and Euftachius in Italy, 
 v/ho were all in high anatomical reputation about the middle 
 of this fixteenth century, endeavoured to defend Galen, at 
 the expence of Vefalius. In their difputes they made their 
 appeals to the human body : and thus in a few years our 
 
 art was greatly improved. And Vefalius being detedled in the 
 very fault which he condemns in Galen, to wit, defcribing 
 from the diiiedfions of brutes, and not of the human body, 
 it expofed fo fully, that blunder of the older Anatomids, that 
 in fucceeding times there has been little reafon for fuch 
 complaint. 
 
 From the time of Vefalius, the dudy of Anatomy gradually 
 did'afed itfelf over Europe ; infomuch that for the lad hundred 
 years it has been daily improving by the labour of a number of 
 profefled Anatomids, almod in every country of Europe. 
 
 We may form a judgement about the date of Anatomy, 
 even in Taly, in the beginning of the feventeenth century, 
 from the information of Cortedus. He had been profeffor of 
 Anatomy at Bologna, and was then profelTor of medicine 
 Medana ; where, though he had a great defire to improve 
 himfelf in the art, and to finidi a treatife which he had be- 
 gun on praclicai Anatomy, in twenty-four years he could, 
 t^vice only^ procure an opportunity of dilTeding a human body, 
 and then it was with difficulties and in hurry 5 whereas, 
 
 hg 
 
[40 
 
 be had expeded to have done fo, he fays, once every year, ac- 
 cording to the ciijiom in the famous academies of Italy. 
 
 In the very end of the fixteenth century, our great Harvey, 
 as was the cuftoin of the times, went to Italy to ftudy medicine ; 
 for Italy was ftill the favourite feat of the arts ; and in the 
 very beginning of the feventeenth century, foon after Harvey’s 
 return to England-, his mafter in Anatomy, Fabricius ab Aqua- 
 pendente, publilhed an account of the valves in the veins, 
 which he had difcovered many years before, and no doubt 
 taught in his ledures when Harvey attended them. 
 
 This difcovery evidently afFedied the eflabliflied dodrine 
 of all ages, that the veins carried the blood from the liver 
 to all parts of the , body for nourifliment. It fet Harvey to 
 work upon the ufe of the heart and vafcular lyftems in ani- 
 mals j and in the courfe of fome years, he was fo happy as 
 to difcover, and to prove beyond all poflibility of doubt, 
 the circulation of the blood. He taught his new dodrine, in 
 his ledures, about the year 1616, and printed it in 1628. 
 
 It was by far the mod important dep that has been made, 
 in the knowledge of animal bodies, in any age. It not only 
 refleded ufeful lights upon what had been already found out 
 in Anatomy, but alfo pointed out the means of further in- 
 vedigation. And, accordingly we fee, that from Harvey to 
 the prefent time. Anatomy has been fo much improved, that 
 we may reafonably quedion if the ancients have been farther out- 
 done by the moderns, in any other branch of knowledge. From 
 one day to another there has been a condant fucceffion of 
 difeoveries, relating either to the drudure, or fundions of 
 
 our 
 
[ 43 ] 
 
 our body ; and new anatomical proceiTes, both of invefllgatlon 
 and demonftration, have been daily invented. Many parts 
 of the body, which were not known in Harvey’s time, have 
 fince then, been brought to light : and of thofe which were 
 known, the internal compofition and functions remained un- 
 explained j and indeed mull have remained unexplicable, with- 
 out the knowledge of the circulation. 
 
 Now that fo much has been faid of this difcovery, and 
 of its author, I may venture to make an obfervation or two, 
 which otherwife might have appeared invidious. Dr. Harvey, 
 as appears by his writings, was certainly a firft rate genius 
 for fagacity and application : and his name is defervedly im- 
 mortal, on account of the many obfervations and improve- 
 ments he made in Anatomy and Phyfiology. But in this» 
 where he has acquired the mod: diftinguifhed honours, I could 
 almoft think him entitled to the lead. For, the fingular druc- 
 ture of the parts concerned in the circulation, to wit, the 
 heart, arteries, and veins, and the obvious phaenomena in 
 bleeding animals to death, the different effedts of ligatures on dif- 
 ferent vedels, the pradlice of furgery, with regard to bleedings and 
 blood-vedcls,the aftion of the heart when expofed to view in living 
 bodies, all thefe, I fay, fo evidently proclaim the circulation, 
 that there feems to have been nothing more required for 
 making the difcovery, than laying afiae grofs prejudices, and 
 confidering fairly fome obvious truths. 
 
 It is the morfe amazing that this difcovery was left for 
 H arvey, when we confider, that he was near an hundred 
 years after Vefalius, in which interval many great men had 
 appeared; and anatomical fchools had flouriflied, in many 
 different parts of Europe. And, what is dill more aftonifh- 
 
 G ing. 
 
[ 44 I 
 
 jng, Servetus finl, and Columbus afterwards, both In the 
 times of Vefalius, had clearly given the circulation of the 
 blood, through the lungs, which we may reckon, at lead:,, 
 three quarters of the difcovery j and Caefalpinus had, many 
 years before Harvey, publilhed in three different works, all 
 that was wanting in Servetus to make the circulation quite 
 complete. But Providence meant to referve this honour for 
 Harvey, and would not let men fee v/hat was before them, 
 nor underftand what they read. 
 
 Thefe reflexions on Harvey’s difcovery, having been mif- 
 underftood, or mifreprefented, it may not be impertinent ta 
 examine the merit and circumflances of this, and fome of the 
 more important inventions. 
 
 Dr. Harvey’s difcovery has been commonly and Juftly faid to 
 have given him iimnortality ; and accordingly he is often called the 
 immartal Flarvey. Thence, fome uninformed perfons, have 
 been weak enough to fuppofe, that, in himfelf, he was fome- 
 thing almofl; above a mortal ; and that treating him as a 
 very fortunate and refpeclable man only, ihould be proclaimed 
 invidious or malicious difrefped: to a mofl exalted charac- 
 ter. “ 
 
 Some of the mofl: important difcoverles, made probably by 
 chance, feem to have been made before, perhaps long before 
 the invention of writing j and thence it may have happened 
 that hiftorians have given no account of them, as having 
 been the happy invention of fome individual, or, as having 
 been at firfl; peculiar to fome particular people > but, they 
 have paflfed as things obvious to common fenfe, and have been, 
 time immemorial, as univerfally diffufed among mankind. 
 
 Such 
 
[ 45 ] 
 
 Such is the ^mrklng of the ore into malleable iron j an art 
 which muft have been difcovered by fome happy accident in 
 fome one part of our hemifphere, and by degrees commu- 
 nicated to the whole 5 hence, at all known times, pradifed in 
 part of Alia, Africa, and Europe. Yet it is an art of fuch difficult 
 inveftigation, that in America it was never found out from the 
 beginning of the world. It was communicated to the inhabi- 
 tants of that hemifphere, by the Europeans, in very late times, 
 and to this hour is unknown to the South-Sea Illanders. 
 
 The fame may be faid of the invention of letters, or 
 writing j with this great difference however, that writing, in 
 its gradation from fomething natural and hieroglyphic, to 
 arbitrary marks or letters, would naturally occur to ingenious 
 and thinking men. 
 
 Some of the moH fplendid and ufeful of more modern in„ 
 ventions and difcoveries, are hardly to be traced to their firff 
 authors ; fuch as, magnifying-glaffes, gunpowder, and the com- 
 pafs j which is not to be accounted for fo well as by fuppofings 
 that there had been fuch participation, fuch mutual affiftance 
 given and received, that no one man could boaff of having 
 a fair claim to the whole. And of thefe it is to be ob- 
 ferved likewife, that after their firfl happy introduddion, great 
 improvements, and a variety of ufeful applications have been 
 daily invented. 
 
 The bleffed art of printing, from which mankind have re- 
 ceived fo much benefit, efpecially by rendering ail kinds of 
 learning an eafy acquifition, was made out by fuch gradual 
 fieps, that it is difficult to fay who was the inventor. Stamps 
 
 G 2 for 
 
[ 46 3 
 
 for cards, for little image?, and pidures, efpeclal ly of the religious 
 kind, with the names of faints, and little excerpts from Scripture, 
 and then little books, cut in blocks of wood, were printed 
 by different people, in Italy, Germany, and Holland, long 
 before Fuff invented movable types, caft in metal. Of this 
 Lift invention, it is very remarkable, that in the fpace of a 
 very few years, it was brought almoft to the higheft date of per- 
 fection which it has yet attained. 
 
 The authors of the three great difeoveries in later times, 
 and all the circumflances, are well knowm ; I mean, the dif- 
 covery of the weftern hemifphere by Columbus j of the true 
 folar fyftem by Copernicus ; and of the circulation by Harvey. 
 
 All thefe three men have equally acquired immortality ; but 
 they have not had, nor deferved, .an equal degree of honour 
 and credit. Honour is acquired only by merit } immortality, 
 by any thing very ftriking or interefting to mankind, w’hether 
 meritorious, or flagitious, or accidental and neutral. The 
 mad ruffian who affaflinated Henry, acquired immortality as 
 well as Henry : but he had no merit, and has had no honour 
 annexed to his immortality, / 
 
 Of thefe three dlfcoverers, Columbus ffands foremofl; in merit j 
 indeed he is beyond comparifon. His objeCt was the greateff, 
 among w'orldly things, that ever employed the human mind. 
 
 It was a new fubjeCt, and entirely his own. His fagacious 
 and comprehenfive mind grafped an unfeen world, with**fueh 
 hrmnefs, that nothing could prevail upon him to let go his- 
 bold : and in executing his plan for finding and taking 
 
 pofTeffion of it, he exercifed the noblefl; virtues of human 
 nature ^ courage, perfevering refolution, patient hope, humanity 
 
 to 
 
[ 47 ] 
 
 to his fellovz-creatures, ‘ and a dependence on the will of 
 heaven, to a degree perhaps beyond any example in the hhlory 
 of mankind. 
 
 Next to Columbus, with regard to merit, we muft place 
 Copernicus. His fubjedl was fplendid and great, almofl be- 
 yonc^ the limits of human comprehenlion. But, it was not 
 entirely his own, or new. Some advances had been made 
 by other aftronomers, to invite and diredt him to the great 
 truth which he made out ; which, however, could not be 
 made out, but by the application of very acute intelledual 
 powers. 
 
 In merit, Harvey’s rank muft be comparatively low indeed. 
 So much had been difcovered by others, that little more was 
 left for him to do, than to drefs it up into a fyftem ; and 
 that, every judge in fuch matters will allow, required no ex- 
 traordinary talents. Yet, eafy as it was, it made him immortaU 
 But none of his writings fhew him to have been a man of 
 uncommon abilities. It were eafy to quote many paffages, 
 which bring him nearly to a level with the reft of mankind. 
 He lived almoft thirty years after Afellius publHhed the Lac- 
 teals, yet, to the laft, feemed moft inclined to think, that 
 no fuch veflels exifted. Thirty hours at any time, fhould 
 have been fufticient to remove all his doubts. But this fub- 
 jed, taken up in felf-defence, grows unpleafant. 
 
 Harvey’s dodrine, at firft, met with conliderable oppofttion. 
 But in the fpace of about twenty years, it was fo generally 
 and fo warmly embraced, that it was imagined every thing in 
 phyfic would be explained. But time and experience have 
 taught us, that we ftill are, and probably muft long continue 
 
 to 
 
[ 48 ] 
 
 (0 be, very ignorant, and that in the ftudy of the human 
 body, and of its difeafes, there will always be an extenfive 
 field for the exercife of fagacity. 
 
 After the difcovery and knowledge of the circulation of the 
 blood, the next queflion would naturally have been, about 
 the paffage and route of the nutritious part of the food, or 
 chyle, from the bowels to the blood- veffels. And, by good 
 fortune, in a few years after Harvey had made his difcovery, 
 Afellius, an Italian phyfician, found out the ladeals, or vef- 
 fels, which carry the chyle from the inteftines ; and printed 
 his account of them, with coloured prints, in the year 1627, 
 the very year before Harvey’s book came out. 
 
 For a number of years after thefe two publications, the Ana- 
 tomifts in all parts of Europe, were daily opening living dogs, 
 either to fee the ladeals, or to obferve the phasnomena of 
 the circulation. In making an experiment of this kind, 
 Pecquet in France, was fortunate enough to difeover the tho- 
 racic dudt, or common trunk of all the ladleals, which con- 
 veys the chyle into the fubclavian vein. He printed his dif- 
 covery in the year 1651. And now the ladteals having been 
 traced from the inteflines to the thoracic dudt, and that dudt 
 having been traced to its termination in a blood-velTel, the paf- 
 fage of the chyle was completely made out. 
 
 The fame pradlice of opening living animals, furnlfhed oc- 
 cafions of difeovering the lymphatic veifels. This good fortune 
 fell to the lot of Rudbec firll, a young Swedish Anatomift, 
 and then to Thomas Bartholine, a Danilh Anatomift, who was 
 the firft who appeared in print upon the lymphatics. His 
 book came out in the year 1653, that is, two years after 
 
 that 
 
[ 49 ] 
 
 that of Pecquet. And then it was very evident that they 
 had been feen before, by Dr. Higmore, and others, who had 
 rniftaken them for ladleals. - But none of the Anatomifts of 
 thofe times, could make out the origin of the lymphatics, and 
 none of the Phyliologifls could give a fatisfadlory account of 
 their ufe. 
 
 The circulation of the blood, and the paiTage of the chyle, 
 having been fatisfadtorily traced out in full grown animals, 
 the Anatomifts were naturally led next to conhder, how thefe 
 animal procefTes were carried on in the child, while in the 
 womb of the mother. Accordingly the male and female or-> 
 ganSv the appearances and contents of the pregnant uterus, 
 the incubated egg, and every phaenomenon which could illuf- 
 trate generation, became the favourite fubjedl for about thirty 
 years, with the principal Anatomids of Europe. 
 
 Thus It would appear to have been in theory : but in faff, 
 I rather believe, that as Harvey’s mafter, Fabritius, laid the 
 foundation for the difeovery of the circulation of the blood, 
 by teaching him the valves of the veins, and thereby in- 
 viting him to conhder that fubjedt, fo Fabritius, by his lec- 
 tures, and by his elegant work, de formato feetu, ^ de forma- 
 tione ovi ^ puUt, probably made that likewife a favourite fub- 
 jedl with Dr. Harvey. But whether he took up the fubjedt 
 of generation, in confequence of his difeovery of the circula- 
 tion, or was led to it, by his honoured mafter Fabritius, he 
 fpent a great deal of his time in the enquiry ; and publhhed 
 his obfervations, in a book de generatione animaliumj in the year 
 1651, that is, hx years before his death. 
 
 la 
 
[ so ] 
 
 In a few years after this, Swammerdam, Van Horn, Steno^ 
 and De Graaf, excited great attention to the fubjedt of ge- 
 neration, by their fuppofed difcovery that the females of vi- 
 viparous animals have ovaria, that is, clufters of eggs in their 
 loins, like oviparous animals ; which, when impregnated by 
 the male, are conveyed into the uterus : fo that a child is pro- 
 duced from an egg, as well as a chick; with this difference, 
 that one is hatched within, and the other without the body of 
 the mother. 
 
 Malpighi, a great Italian genius, fome time after, made 
 conliderable advances upon the fubjedt of generation. He had 
 the good fortune to be the firfl who ufed magnifying- glafles 
 with addrefs, in tracing the hrft appearances in the formation 
 of animals. He likewife made many other obfervations and 
 improvements in the minutice of Anatomy, by his microfcopical 
 labours ; and by cultivating comparative Anatomy. 
 
 This diflinguifhed Anatomift gave the firfl: public fpecimen 
 of his abilities, by printing a differtation on the lungs. Anno 
 1661 ; a period fo remarkable for the fludy of nature, that it 
 would be injuflice to pafs it, without particular notice. 
 
 The Italians, who gave not only eloquence, and the other 
 fine arts, but fcience to the reft of Europe, were rifing up- 
 wards from barbarity and ignorance, about the middle of the 
 fifteenth century. They had then had Dante, Petrarch, Boccace, 
 Emmanuel Chryfoloras, Leonard Aretin, Poggius, Philelphus, 
 and feveral other learned men : but the number was only fuf- 
 ficient to raife an appetite in the nation for Greek learning, 
 till Conftantinople was facked in the year 1453, which makes 
 
 the 
 
[ 5t ] 
 
 the beginning of the firfl great revolution in the learning of 
 modern times ; viz. the revival of the Greek, and great im- 
 provement in the ftudy of the Latin language. 
 
 In the courfe of the next hundred years, thefe improve- 
 ments were advanced to the highelb perfedlion, and fpread 
 very generally over Europe. In every country were found 
 fome of the beft fcholars in the dead languages, that Lave 
 appeared iince the decline of the Roman empire. Phyfic and 
 Anatomy were then reftored to the bell condition to which 
 the ftudy of Greek authors could bring them. In confequence 
 of which, the Arabians began to be confulted only as com- 
 mentators on Hippocrates, Ariftotle, and Galen. All later 
 writers were degraded with the appellation of barbarians, and 
 funk gradually in the efteem of the world, in proportion as 
 the Greek language became more generally underftood, and 
 as their beft writers both in the original drefs, and in good 
 tranflations, were multiplied by printing. 
 
 In the next hundred years, the Italians finding their own 
 ftrength, the natural confequence of cultivating the human 
 mind, ventured upon the more arduous undertaking of im- 
 proving upon the Greeks themfelves.. This began with Ve- 
 falius, about the middle of the fixteenth century. And from 
 that time, in the fubfequent hundred years, the circulation 
 of the blood, and many other important dodtrines, unknown 
 to the ancients, had been fo generally adopted, and diffufed 
 over Europe, that the learning of the Greeks in natural 
 knowledge, was allowed to be imperfedt ; and -men of a more 
 acute and afpiring caft of mind, after having gone through 
 their fchooi education, were prompted to look with their own 
 eyes into every part of nature. 
 
 H 
 
 It 
 
[ 52 ] 
 
 It was at this happy time that Malpighi came forth, the 
 great period for the ftudy of all natural things. At this time 
 the Academy del Cimento arofe in Italy, the Royal Society in 
 London, and the Royal Academy in Paris. And from that 
 time, the important dodrine of rejeding all hypothefis, or ge- 
 neral knov/ledgc, till a fufficient number of fads fhall have been 
 afcertained, by careful obfervation, and judicious experiments, 
 has been, every day, growing into more credit. That doc- 
 trine was the fource of Sir Ifaac Newton’s, and of all the im- 
 provements which have been made fince the middle of the feven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Here it may be ufeful, as well as entertaining to obferve 
 that novelties, and improvement of courfe, have always be- 
 come fubjeds of emulation and contention, between young 
 men, and the old. In the exercife of the mind, as well as 
 of the body, young men are quick, eager, ambitious of be- 
 ing diftinguithed, and often rafh. In adopting a new opinion, 
 they have not to druggie with the habitual influence of a 
 contrary opinion, to which they have long adapted all their 
 other reafonings. Young men have likewife, very commonly, 
 no diflike to pull down the magiderial didates of age; and 
 old men can feldom bear, what they think an inverdon of 
 the natural order of things, that youth diould indrud age. 
 Of all men, teachers of every kind, bear this with the 
 lead patience. For that reafon, we fee in fad, that the feniors 
 of fchools, colleges and univerdties, have generally been the 
 mod obdinate in fhutting out light, and claiming a birth-righ£ 
 for opinion, as for property. 
 
 A Httk 
 
[ 53 ] 
 
 A little reflexion into human nature, will fliew, that va« 
 nity is the principal fource of this abfurdity. All men with 
 to be refpedable ; and mofl: of them carry about with them, 
 through life, what they think a fecret, and yet what very 
 . few of them can conceal, a conftant endeavour to pafs in 
 the world, for what they are not ; for being more acute, 
 more judicious, more ftudious and learned, than they really 
 are. Thence, profeflbrs, enjoying the admiration of their young 
 pupils, affume a decided and dictatorial character, affeCting to 
 have gone to the bottom of every thing, and to have over- 
 come every difficulty, either by the natural powers of the 
 mind, or by feverity of itudy and perfeverance in the pur- 
 fuit of knowledge. Under ^the influence of this paffion, they 
 are mingling felf-applaufe with every doCtrine which they 
 teach. It is eafy to fee, that fuch men will reffit new doc- 
 trines with more obflinacy than the reft of mankind, per- 
 haps with inveteracy, in proportion as the doClrines are well 
 founded. They will be fenfible that all their fcholars who 
 embrace the new opinion, will call to mind, many looks of 
 importance, and expreffions of vanity, which muft now appear 
 truely ridiculous. 
 
 But thofe few teachers, who have had moderation enough 
 to wifti for that refpeCl; only which they really deferved, have 
 had the fatisfaCtion of knowing, that they could not be re- 
 duced to that humiliating lituation, becaufe when they had 
 doubts they avowed them ; where truth lay beyond their reach, 
 they confefled their ignorance, with a decent and becoming 
 fenfe of the imperfeCUons of human nature. Such men will 
 always be ready to receive inftruCtion, and to embrace truth, 
 from whatever quarter it may be prefented, 
 
 H 2 What 
 
What Malpighi fays, of the eitbrts made to refill: his 
 firft new dodrines, is fo much to oar purpofe, that we mud 
 give the fubftance of it in a few words. Op. Pofth. p. 20, 2 -j. 
 ** In the mean time, fays he, contentions being railed among 
 Iludious men, efpecially the younger, both theoretical and 
 pradical, and the new dodrines growing daily into more cre- 
 dit, the fenior profelTors were inflamed to fuch a pitch, that 
 in order to root out heretical innovations in philofophy and 
 phyfic, they endeavoured to pafs a law, whereby every gra- 
 duate fhould be obliged to take the following additional claufe. 
 to his folemn oath on taking his degree j viz. You (hall like- 
 wife fwear, that you will preferve and defend, the dodrine 
 taught in the univerfity of Bononia, viz. that of Hippocra- 
 tes, Arifrotle, and Galen, which has now been approved of 
 for fo many ages j and that you will not permit their pria- 
 ciples and conclufions, to be overturned by any perfon, as 
 far as in you lies.— prt? toto tui pojj'e is the expreffion. But, 
 fays our author, this was dropt, and the liberty of philofa- 
 phizing with freedom remains to this dayf’ 
 
 In the microfcopic part of Anatomy, he was well feconded 
 by Leeuwenhoek of Holland. They took up Anatomy where 
 others had dropt it, and, by this new art, brought a number of 
 amazing things to light. They difeovered the red globules 
 of the blood ; they were enabled to fee the adual circula- ^ 
 tion of the blood, in the tranfparent parts of living animals, 
 and could meafure the velocity of its motion j they difeovered 
 that the arteries and veins had no intermediate cells or fpungy 
 fubftance, as Harvey and all the preceding Anatomifls had 
 fuppofed, but communicated one with the other, by a conti- 
 aiuation of the fame tube. 
 
 Leeuwenhoek 
 
[ 55 ]. 
 
 Leeuwenhoek was in great fame likewife, for his difeovery 
 of the animalcula in the femen. Indeed there was fcarcely a 
 part of tlie body, folid or fluid, which efcaped his exami- 
 nation j and he almoft every where found, that what appeared 
 to the naked eye, to be rude, undigefled matter, was in re- 
 ality a beautiful and regular compound. 
 
 In the latter part of the lafl: century. Anatomy made two great 
 Heps, by the invention of injedlions, and the method of making 
 what we commonly call preparations. Thefe two modern 
 arts have really been of infinite ufe to Anatomy ; and befides 
 have introduced an elegance into our adminifirations, which 
 in former times could not have been fuppofed to be poflible. 
 They arofe in Holland under Swammerdam and Ruyfch, and 
 afterwards in England under Cowper, St. Andre, and others, 
 where they have been greatly improved. And from England, 
 they are of late years fpreading to all parts of the BritilE 
 dominions, to France, Italy, and other parts of Europe. I 
 fay from England, becaufe the arts of making fine injections, 
 and preparations, feem to have been almoft peculiar to Hol- 
 land and England ; and, the Anatomifls, who have excelled 
 in that way, have generally made a fecret of their methods 
 and improvements till within the lafl: thirty years, when 
 all thefe arts have been conftantly taught in public courfes of 
 Amatomy here. 
 
 Were the great Harvey to rife from his grave, to examine 
 what has been done flnee his time, I imagine that nothing 
 would give him more pleafure, than to view v/ith attention, 
 the cabinets of fome of the Anatomifts of the prefent times. 
 He, and the Anatomifls of former ages, had no other know- 
 ledge of the blood-velTels, than what they were able to coi- 
 led!: 
 
/ 
 
 , [ 56 ] 
 
 left from laborious diiledions, and from examining the fmaller 
 branches of them, upon fome lucky occafion, when they 
 were found mere than commonly loaded with red blood. But 
 filling the vafcular fyftem with a bright coloured wax, enables 
 us to trace the large veffels with great eafe, renders the 
 fmaller much more confpicuous, and makes thoufands of the 
 very minute ones vifible, which from their delicacy, and 
 the tranfparency of their natural contents, are otherwife im- 
 perceptible. 
 
 The modern art of corroding the flefhy parts with a men.‘- 
 f^ruuniy and of leaving the moulded wax entire, is fo ex- 
 ceedingly ufeful, and at the fame time fo ornamental, that 
 it does great honour to the ingenious inventor. Dr. Ni- 
 cholls. 
 
 The wax-work art of the moderns, might deferve notice 
 in any hiftory of Anatomy, if the mailers in that way, had 
 not been fo carelefs in their imitation. Many of the wax- 
 hgures which I have feen, are fo tawdry, with a fhew of 
 unnatural colours, and fo very incorredt in the circumflances 
 of figure, fituation, and the like, that, though they flrike a 
 vulgar eye with admiration, they mult appear ridiculous to 
 an Anatomifl. But thofe figures which are call in wax, 
 plaifter, or lead, from the real fubjedt, and which of late 
 years have been frequently made here, are, of courfe, very 
 corredl in all the principal parts, and may be confidered as 
 no infignificant acquifition to modern Anatomy. The proper, 
 or principal ufe of this art, is, to preferve a very perfedt 
 likenefs of fuch fubjedts as we but feldom can meet with, or 
 cannot well preferve in a natural flate ; a fubjedt in pregnan- 
 cy, for example. 
 
 The 
 
[ 57 ]' 
 
 The modern improved methods of preferving animal bodies, 
 or parts of them, has been of the greatefl; fervice to Ana- 
 tomy; efpecially in faving the time and labour of the Ana- 
 tomill, in the nicer dilTeflions of the fmall parts of the body. 
 For now, whatever he has prepared with care, he can pre- 
 ferve; and the objedl is ready to be feen at any time. And, 
 in the fame manner he can preferve anatomical curiohties, 
 or rarities of every kind ; fuch as, parts that are uncommonly 
 formed ; parts that are difcafed ; the parts of the pregnant 
 uterus and its contents. Large colledlions of fuch curiohties, 
 which modern Anatomifts are flriving, almofi: every where 
 to procure, are of infinite fervice to the art ; efpecially in 
 the hands of teachers. They give ftudents clear ideas about 
 many things, which it is very efifential to know, and yet 
 which it is impoffible that a teacher ihould be able to fliew 
 otherwife, were he ever fo well fupplied with frefli fub» 
 jedts. 
 
 The Anatomifls of this century have improved Anatomy, 
 and have made the ftudy of it much more eafy, by giving 
 us more correft as well as more numerous figures. It is 
 amazing to think of v/hat has been done in that time. We 
 have had four large folio books of figures of the bones, viz__ 
 Chefelden’s, Albinus’s, Sue’s, and Trew’s ; befides one which 
 was long expedled from my old mafter and friend. Dr. James 
 Douglas, and, which I wifh very much to have time to pub- 
 lifh, as the plates are all in my pofTeffion. Of the mufcles, 
 we have, had two large folios, one from Cowper, which is 
 elegant, and one from Albinus, which, from the accuracy 
 and labour of the work, we may fuppofe will never be matched 
 or outdone. Of the blood-vefTds we have a large fo- 
 lio from Dr, Haller, We have been in expedlation of having 
 
 one 
 
t S8 ] 
 
 one upon the nerves from Dr. Meckel. We have had Al- 
 binus’s, Roederer’s, and Jenty’s upon the pregnant uterus; 
 and within thefe two years, as moft of you know, one has 
 been publilhed here, which is allowed to be inferior to no 
 book of Anatomy j whether we confider the accuracy with 
 which the natural appearances are reprefented, or the elegance 
 both of the engravings and of the prefs-work. But it would 
 be endlefs to mention the anatomical figures that have been 
 publilhed in this century, of particular and fmaller parts of 
 the body, by Morgagni, Ruyfch, Valfalva, Sandtorini, Heifter, 
 Vater, Cant, Zinn, Meckel, Zimmerman, Walther, Haller, 
 and two or three hundred more. 
 
 In our own times, after fchools of Anatomy have long 
 fiourilhed in all the civilized nations of Europe, and when 
 from the number of men who have been employed in fuch 
 refearches, it might have been imagined that difeoveries were 
 exhaufied. Providence has allowed me a greater (hare of that 
 fort of honour which is generally given to difeoverers, than 
 I could have expedled. 
 
 I think I have proved, that the lymphatic vefiTels are the 
 abforbing vefiTels, all over the body ; that they are the fame 
 as the ladeals ; and that thefe altogether, with the thoracic 
 dud, conftitute one great and general fyftem, difperfed through 
 the whole body for abforption j that this fyftem only does 
 abforb, and not the veins; that it ferves to take up, and 
 convey, whatever is to make, or to be mixed with the blood, 
 from the fidn, from the inteftinal canal, and from all the in- 
 ternal cavities or furfaces w'hatever. This difeovery gains 
 credit daily, both at honae and abroad, to fuch a degree, 
 
 that 
 
[ 59 J 
 
 fEat I believe we may now fay, that it is almofl univerfally 
 adopted : and, if we miftake not, in a proper time, it will 
 be allowed to be the greateft difcovery, both in phyfiology 
 and in pathology, that Anatomy has fuggefled, lince the dif« 
 covery of the circulation. 
 
 Having ventured to throw out fo bold a propoiltion, that 
 my credit may not fuffer through want of a little reflexion 
 upon the fubjedt, I mufl: afk leave to explain my opinion. 
 The difcovery of a particular facit, with regard only to a 
 particular organ in the body j fuch as, the dudt of a gland ; 
 or, the ufe of a glands an undefcribed mufcle, or artery, or 
 vein i or any new organ found out or explained ; all fuch 
 difcoveries are certainly trifling, when compared with the in- 
 trodudtion of a new general fyflem, which is interwoven with, 
 and performs a peculiar and important fundtion in every part 
 of the body j fo important indeed, that it was neceflary, and 
 accordingly has flnce been adtually found out, in brutes like- 
 wife, in birds, and in fifh. Such is the difcovery of the ab- 
 forbing fyftem : and every perfon, who is really an Anato- 
 mifl:, or Phyfiologifl:, will, upon a little reflexion, admit what 
 has been advanced; and, looking over the whole progrefs of 
 Anatomy, he will allow, that flnce the days of Ariftotle, 
 there have been only two great inventions in the phyflology 
 of our bodies ; to wit, the circulation of the blood, and the 
 abforbent fyftem. And, were we to draw a parallel, with 
 regard to the circumfliances of thefe two difcoveries, they 
 would be found more flmilar than could have been expedted : at 
 prefent I fhall only obferve, that hov/ever important I think the 
 difcovery of the true ufe of the abforbent fyftem, I never 
 thought the author entitled to much honour, for having made 
 out (as I faid of the circulation.) what was obvious to any 
 
 I perfon,. 
 
I 6o 3 
 
 perfon, who would but think upon the rubje(fi: without 
 prejudice* 
 
 The Anatomifts of all Europe, for a hundred years, in 
 the moft improved ftate of our art, from all their enquiries 
 were of opinion, that the lymphatic fyftem was wanting in 
 birds and fifhes. But having found out the importance of th 
 abforbent fyhem in man, and in all quadrupeds, we could not 
 reft fatisfied, that it was wanting in the other two great clalTes 
 of animals ; and kept that objedl, and every thing that could 
 throw light upon the abforbent fyftem, conftant-ly in view. 
 
 Accordingly, my brother, Mr. John Hunter, whom I bred 
 to pradtical Anatomy, and who worked for me, and attended 
 my difledling-room, and read fome ledtures for me many 
 years, found fome lymphatics, firft in birds, and then in a 
 crocodile. 
 
 Next, Mr. Hewfon, whom I firft bred to Anatomy, and 
 then took into my houfe to work for me, and under my di- 
 redlion, in pradtical Anatomy, to attend my difiedling-room, 
 and read fome iedlures as my partner, which he did for a 
 number of years ; Mr. Hewfon, I fay, by a continued courfe 
 cf obfervations and experiments made in this houfe^, difcovered 
 and fully demonftrated the lymphatics and ladleals, both in 
 birds and fifties : which confirmed the ufe and importance of 
 the abforbent fyftem in the human body ; and in comparative 
 Anatomy was one of the greateft improvements that could 
 have been made, to eftablifta the univerfality of nature’s laws 
 in animal bodies, , 
 
 And, 
 
 * In Dr. Hunter’s diiTefting-rooms in 'Windmill-Street. 
 
[ 6i ] 
 
 And, laft of all, Mr. Cruiklhank, whom I likewife bred 
 to Anatomy, and took into my houfe upon the fame plan, 
 with the opportunities which he has had in this place, and 
 by being particularly attentive to the lymphatic fyftem, at 
 my defire, has traced the ramifications of that fyftem in al- 
 moft every part of the body ^ and from his diifedlions, figures 
 have been made, which, with what I had before, will enable 
 us to publifii (we hope, in a little time) a full account of 
 the whole fyftem, illuftrated by accurate engravings^. 
 
 The gravid uterus is a fubjedt likewife, which has afforded 
 me opportunities of making confiderable improvements j par» 
 ticularly one very important difcovery ; viz. that the internal 
 membrane of the uterus^ which I have named decidua^ con- 
 ftitutes the exterior part of the fecimdinesy or after-birth f 
 and feparates' from the reft of the uterus every time that a 
 woman either bears a child or fuffers a mifcarriage. This 
 difcovery includes another, to wit, that the placenta is partly 
 made up of an excrefcence or efflorefcence from the uterus 
 itfelf. 
 
 Thefe difcoveries are of the utmoft confequence, both in 
 the phyfiological queftion about the connedlion between the 
 mother and child ; and likewife in explaining the phasnomena 
 of births and abortions, as well as in regulating our prac«^ 
 tree. 
 
 Befides' the more capital improvements above mentioned, I 
 have been fortunate enough to make feveral others, not unim- 
 portant, with regard efpecially to difeafes ; which, as they 
 occur in the courfe of ledlures, you will fee, have had con- 
 fiderable influence in improving phyfic, furgery, and midv/ifery,. 
 
 I 2 You^ 
 
 *■ It is hoped thatthe publk may ftill have this work laid before them.- 
 
[ 62 ] 
 
 You will fee that even new difeafes (fuch- as, the varicofs 
 aneuryfm, and the retroverted uterus) have been made out, 
 and a proper and fuccefsful treatment recommended; by which' 
 feveral lives have been already faved, in cafes which, other- 
 wife, muji have proved fatal. 
 
 This aflhrds me an heart-felt comfort, now, when years 
 and reflexion have given me the clearefl: view of the uncer- 
 tainty, the fhortnefs, and the miferies of human life. I fm- 
 cerely pray that a great number of you may enjoy fuch 
 a comfort in the clofe of life ; when, I am certain, the mofl; 
 diligent, the moft confcientious, and the mofl; humane, among 
 you all, will moft ardently wifli, that you could have done 
 flill more fervice to the caufe of your poor diftrefled fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 To conclude : the hiflory of Anatomy fhould ftimulate us 
 all to cultivate it with diligence; when we fee, that Anato- 
 mifts, in all ages, have made ufeful difcoveries, and in con- 
 fequence thereof, have enjoyed the advantages of reputation 
 in their profeflion ; aind when we fee that the fubjedt is ftill 
 fo far from being exhaufted, that it is to this day, and mufl: 
 be to the end of time, ^new, entertaining, ufeful, and inex- 
 hauflible. 
 
 End of Lecture I. 
 
 / 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
 STRONOMY and Anatomy, as Fontenelle obferves. 
 
 are the ftudies which prefent us with the moft flriking 
 view of the two greateft attributes of the Supreme Being. 
 The firft of thefe fills the mind with the idea of his im- 
 menfity, in the largenefs, diftances, and number of the 
 heavenly bodies ; the laft, afionifhes with his intelligence, and 
 art, in the variety and delicacy of animal mechanifm. 
 
 The human body has been, commonly enough known, by" 
 the name of microcofmus j as if it did not differ fo much 
 from the univerfal fyflem of nature, in the fymmetry and num- 
 ber of its parts, as in their fize. t 
 
 Galen’s excellent treatife of the ufe of the parts, was 
 compofed as a profe hymn to the Creator; and abounds with 
 as irrefiflible proofs of a fupreme Caufe, and governing Pro- 
 vidence, as we find in modern phyfico-theology. And Cicero 
 dwells more on the firufture and ceconomy of animals, than 
 on all the productions of nature befides, when he wants to 
 prove the exigence of the gods, from the o.'-der and beauty 
 of the univerfe. He there takes a lurvey of the body of man 
 
 m 
 
in a rnofl elegant fynopfis of Anatomy, and concludea thnSj, 
 Quibus rebus expofitis, fatls docuilTe videor, hominis na-=- 
 “ tura, quanto ornnes anteiret animantes. Ex quo debet 
 “ intelligi, nec figiiram fitumque mcmbrorum, nec ingenii 
 inentifque vim talem effici potuilTe fortuna.” 
 
 The fatisfad;ion of mind which arifes from the fludy of 
 Anatomy, and the influence which it muft naturally have 
 upon our minds as philofophers, cannot be better conveyed 
 than by the following paffage from the fame author j “ 
 contuens animus, accepit ab his cognitionem deorum, ex 
 “ qua oritur pietas : cui conjundla jiiflitia eft, reliquaeque 
 virtutes : ex quibus vita beata exfiftit, par et fimilis deorum, 
 ** nulla alia re nift immortalitate, quce nihil ad bene vi* 
 vendum pertinet, cedens coeleftibus.’’ 
 
 It would be endlefs to quote the animated pafTages of this- 
 Ibrt, which are to be found in the phyftcians, philofophers,, 
 and theologifts, who have conftdered the ftrudture and func- 
 tions of animals, with a view towards the Creator. It is a 
 view which ftrik.es me, with a moft awful convidllon j and 
 when I fpeak of it, I feel that I muft fpeak from my own 
 fenfes and obfervation. Who can know and confider the- 
 thoufand evident proofs of the aftoniftiing art of the Crea- 
 tor, in forming and fuftaining an animal body fuch as ours>. 
 without feeling the moft: pleaftng enthuiiafm ? Can we fe- 
 rioufly refledl upon this awful fubjedt, without being almoft 
 loft: in adoration ? without longing for another life after this, 
 in which we may be gratified with the higheft enjoyment,, 
 which our faculties and nature feem capable of, the feeing 
 and comprehending the whole plan of the Creator, in form- 
 ing the univerfe, and in, directing all its operations, 
 
 Thg 
 
[ 6 s ] 
 
 The maa who is really an Anatomlit, yet does not fee 
 and feel what I have endeavoured to exprefs in words, what« 
 ever he may be in other refpecfls, mufl: certainly labour under 
 a dead palfey, in one part of his mind. Milton could look 
 upon the fun, at noon, without feeing light. There was 
 no apparent defedt in his eye, but the nerves of that part 
 were infenhbic;. 
 
 But, the more imnaediate purpofes of Anatomy, concern 
 thofe who are to be the guardians of health ; as this ftudy 
 is neceifary to lay a foundation for all the branches of medi« 
 cine. 
 
 The more we know of our fabrick, the more reafon wc 
 have to believe, that if our fenfes were more acute, and our 
 judgment more enlarged, we (hould be able to trace many 
 fprings of life, which are now hidden from us : by the fame 
 fagacity we fhould difeover the true caufes and nature of 
 difeafes j and thereby be enabled to reftore the health of many, 
 who are now, from our more confined knowledge, faid to 
 labour under incurable diforders. By fuch an intimate ac» 
 quaintance v/ith the ceconomy of our bodies, we fhould dif= 
 cover even the feeds of difeafes 5 and deflroy them, before 
 they had taken root in the confUtution. 
 
 This indeed is a pitch of knowledge which we mud; not expedb 
 to attain. But furely we may go fome way j and therefore 
 let us endeavour to go as far as we can. And if we con- 
 fider, that health and difeafe are the oppofites of each other, 
 there can be no doubt, that the ftudy of the natural date of 
 the body, which cenditutes the one, mud be the dired road 
 to the knowledge of the other. 
 
 What 
 
t 66 ] 
 
 What has been faid of the ufefulnefs of Anatomy in phyric? 
 will only be called in queftion, by -the more illiterate em- 
 pyrics among phyficians. They would difcourage others from 
 the purfuit of knowledge, which they have not themfelvcs, 
 and which therefore they cannot know the value of ; and 
 tell us that a little of Anatomy is enough for a phyfician. 
 
 Let us judge of this queftion, by colleding the opinions- 
 of the raoft eminent phyficians of different countries and ages. 
 If we have recourfe to Hippocrates, Celfus, Galen, Rhazcs, 
 Avicenna, Harvey, Pitcairn, Boerhaave, Hoffman, and Mead‘, 
 we fhall find that all of them, either wrote upon Anatomy, 
 or taught it. 
 
 One of the moft: unexceptionable teftimonies in our favour, 
 is that of Sydenham ; who is allowed, by all parties, to have 
 been a moft fagacious obferver, and a moft excellent pradical 
 phylician. In his treatife de Hydropet he quotes a paffage 
 from Hippocrates, and then adds, “ Attamen [ne vel divinus 
 hie audlor, erroris ullatenus infimulatur, vel ex hoc loco 
 empiric! ignorantiae fuae patrocinium qusrant] aperte dicam, 
 me, quantum attentiftima cogitatione, eaque ad praxin re- 
 lata, adfequi valeam, utcunque exiftimare, quod neeeffe om- 
 nino fit, ut medicus ftrufturam human! corporis probe 
 calleat j quo redius veras ideas, et nature et caufarum quo- 
 
 ** rundara morborum, animo concipere ac formare queat.” 
 
 * 
 
 Here you will obferve, that Sydenham’s pen wrote nothing 
 but what his judgment and candour didated. He does, not 
 fay, of allt but of fome and he might very well have faid, 
 
 f a great number of difeafes. Some phyficians, of a differ- 
 ent opinion, argue thus, as I have been informed; The cure 
 
[ ^7 ] 
 
 of difeafes, is to be confidered as a matter of fad and 
 obfervation ; and is not to be found out, or improved, 
 ** by difleding dead bodies : the bark cures fevers ; mercury 
 “ cures venereal diforders ; a little oil cures the bite of a 
 viper j and nothing, yet known, cures the bite of a mad 
 dog,” . An argument which draws univerfality from fome 
 particulars, all logicians will condemn, as inconclufive. It 
 were juft as reafonable to aftert, that the bark, and mercury 
 are ufeiefs, in the cure of difeafes, becaufe the bark does 
 not cure a pox ; nor mercury, an intermittent ; or, becaufe 
 neither of them cures all diforders. It is by Anatomy alone, 
 that we know the true nature, and therefore the moft proper 
 cure of the greateft number of local difeafes. 
 
 That Anatomy is the very balls of furgery every body al- 
 lows. It is dilTedion alone that can teach us, where we may 
 cut the living body, with freedom and difpatch j and where 
 we may venture, with great circumfpedlion and delicacy j and 
 where we muft not, upon any account, attempt it. This 
 informs the gives dexterity to the hand^ and familiarizes 
 
 the heart with a fort of neceftary inhumanity, the ufe of 
 cutting- inftruments upon our fellow-creatures. 
 
 Were it poflible to doubt of the advantages, which arife 
 in Surgery, from the knowledge of Anatomy, we might have 
 ample conviflion, by comparing the prefent pradlice with that 
 of the ancients : and upon tracing the improvements which 
 have been made in later times, they would be found, ge- 
 nerally, to' have fprung from a more accurate knowledge of 
 the parts concerned. And if at any time an accident, or 
 fomething elfe, gave the firft rife to an ufeful invention, it 
 was Anatomy that regulated, improved, and eftablilhed it. 
 
 K 
 
 In 
 
[ 68 ] 
 
 In the courfe of thefe ledares, both when we examine 
 the parts themfelves, and v.^'hen we coniider the chirurgicai 
 operations we fhall fee the ftridi connedlion between Anatomy 
 and Surgery : how much the laft is demonftrative, clear, and 
 infallible, when it receives the full lights from the former j 
 how uncertain without them. In the hands of a good Ana- 
 tomili, furgery is a falutary, a divine art ; but when prac- 
 tifed by men who know not the hrudure of the human body, 
 it often becomes barbarous and criminaL 
 
 All that has been now advanced, concerning the ufefulnefs 
 of Anatomy in phyfic and furgery, is indeed fo- apparent, fo 
 demonflrable, that in our days it is not controverted, by 
 thofe in the profeflion who have any pretence to be judges j 
 or any character to give weight to their opinion,. But, my 
 duty to you, my fincere defire to ferve the public, obliges me 
 to urge the queflion much farther. I mufl infill: upon it, 
 and will beg of you to believe, that it is not barely 2. general 
 knowledge of Anatomy, that is neceffary ; but the mofl par- 
 ticular, and the moil accurate, that can be acquired. It is 
 not the common attendance upon a courfe or two of anato- 
 mical ledtures; but an attentive and perfevering fludy; an 
 intimate acquaintance with the pradlical part while we are in 
 the courfe of education ; and alfo, though this be generally 
 negiedted, a continued, or frequent exercife of the art, as long 
 as we continue in the pradtice of phyfic or furgery. 
 
 When we hear any man of the profeflion, talking of all 
 the knowledge of Anatomy that is neceffary for a phyfician, 
 and of as much as a furgeon needs to know, we cannot but 
 lament the fingularly hard fortune of his patients; firfl: in be- 
 ing fick, or difeafed, and then, in falling under the care of 
 
 fo 
 
fo Ignorant a counfellor. Who is the man of pradice and irx- 
 tegrity, that can lay his hand upon his heart, and fay, that 
 he has not, in fome cafe or other, had occafion for all his 
 anatomical knowledge ; and who has not wiflaed, at times, 
 that he had been polTeffed of more ? Who, then, are the 
 men in the profeffion, that would perfuade ftudents, that 
 a little of Anatomy is enough for a phyfician, and a little 
 more too much for a furgeon ? God help them ! They 
 have it not themfelves, and are afraid that others Ihould get 
 it. 
 
 Many of the old generation among us, and it is to be feared 
 fome of the younger too, never underftood Anatomy well 
 enough to know its true value : and behdes, many of them 
 have no way left of preferving any rank in the profeffion, but 
 that of undervaluing and ridiculing improvements j they would 
 have young men continue as ignorant as themfelves, that their 
 own wants may efcape obfervation. But, thank heaven ! fuch 
 arts cannot prevail. Knowledge and Improvements gain ground 
 every day ; and ignorant men are perpetually feen in humi- 
 liating fituations. Men have begun to reafon more corredly ; 
 to exercife their own judgment, upon their obfervations j and 
 when that comes to be the cafe generally, there mud be an 
 end to the delufion j many dodrines of old phydcians, and of 
 old women, will meet with proper contempt ; the tyranny of 
 empty pomp and mydery in phyfic, will be driven out of 
 the land, and forced to feek flielter among lefs cultivated 
 focieties of men. 
 
 The more clear and perfed our knowledge of every part 
 of the body is, both in its found and morbid date, the better 
 
 K2 
 
 we 
 
[ JO I 
 
 we fhall underfEand the nature, and ftrength, and tendenc)?^ 
 of its difeafes. Thence we fliali more readily and certainlyr 
 learn to difcover a difeafe in its beginning.; to obftrudl its- 
 progrefs ; to put it under difficulties; to prevent its gaining 
 ftrength by the acquifition of auxiliaries ; to cut off its fup- 
 plies of neceffaries ; and finally to drive it out. 
 
 The comparifon of a phyfician to a general, is both ra- 
 tional and inllrudlive. The human body under a difeafe, is 
 the country which labours under a civil war or invafion j- 
 the phyfician is, or ffiould be, the didlator and general, who 
 is to take the command, and to diredf all the neceffary ope- 
 rations. To do his duty with full advantage, a general, be- 
 fides other acquirements, ufeful in his profeffion, muff make 
 himfelf mafter of the Anatomy and Phyjiology.^ as we may 
 call it, of the country. He may be faid to be maffer of 
 the Anato?ny of the country, when he knows the figure, di- 
 menfion, fituation, and connection, of all the principal confti- 
 tuent parts ; fuch as, the lakes, rivers, manffies, mountains,, 
 precipices, plains, woods, roads, paffes, fords, towns, fortifi- 
 cations, &c. By the Phyjiology of the country, which he 
 ought likewife to underftand, is meant, all the variety of 
 aClive influence, which is produced by the inhabitants. If 
 the general be well inffruffcd in all thefe points, he will find 
 a hundred occafions of drawing advantages from them ^ and 
 without fuch knowledge, he will be for ever expofed to fome 
 fatal blunder. 
 
 What contempt would the King of Pruffia, or Prince Fer- 
 dinand entertain, for any officer, who would fay, that a mo- 
 derate (hare of that fort of knowledge, is fufficient for a 
 
[ 7 ^ ] 
 
 general ? The famed retreat of the ten thoufand Greeks 
 from Perha, v/ould have been eafily effected, if their leaders 
 had known the country through which they were to pafs ; 
 their dangers, difappointments, and diftrefl'es, arofe princi- 
 pally from their ignorance of the Anatomy of that part af 
 the globe. 
 
 The moft fpecious argument, which ignorance has been able 
 to fuggeil:, againft the ufefulnefs of much anatomical Ifudy, 
 is a piece of mere fophiflry > it is, that the exadf knoudedge 
 of all the parts of our body, in minute detail, cannot be 
 ufeful ; fuch as, that of many little mufcles, and arteries, 
 and veins, and nerves, and little procelfes or other features 
 ©f bones, which are deferibed by anatomical writers. The 
 fadt, as here flated, is true ^ but the inference drawn from 
 it, is net jud. Many Anatomifts, indeed, have been blame- 
 able in this refped > they have dwelt upon trifling minutice^ 
 ©bjedls adapted to their own minds. All fenhble dudents, 
 mud have been difguded with the common tirefome, and 
 ufelefs defeription, of the Jeparated bones of the head, and 
 of the precife attachment of all the mufcles of the body j they 
 mud have been fick of the deferiptions of the fmaller branches 
 of blood-vedels, and of nerves. Men who drudge without com- 
 prehenfion, treat thofe objedts in their ledlures and waitings, 
 with all the folemnity and refpedl: which is due to ufeful 
 enquiries. Men of more underdanding mud defpife them^ 
 Eut let us remember, that when fuch unimportant fubjedls 
 arc given up, there are more ufeful facts to be learned in 
 Anatomy, than mod naen can have opportunities of ac- 
 q_uiring. 
 
 Befides 
 
t 72 ] 
 
 Befides the knowledge of our body, through all the va- 
 riety of its Jlrutiure and operations in a found flate, it is by 
 Anatomy only that we can arrive at the knowledge of the 
 true nature of mod: of the dlfeafes which afflid; humanity. 
 The fymptoms of many diforders arc often equivocal j and 
 difeafes themfelves are thence frequently mifliaken, even by 
 fenfible, experienced, and attentive phyficians. But by ana- 
 tomical examination after death, we can with certainty find 
 out the miftake, and learn to avoid it, in any fimilar cafe* 
 Fatal miftakes of that kind are Blocking to humanity; but 
 it would be invidious, and even cruel, to expofe fuch as I 
 inyfelf have known ; becaufe it would involve the innocent 
 with the guilty ; as in our profellion, the belt are liable to 
 error^ It becomes us all to be humble, to confefs our ig- 
 norance, and to encourage every ftudy that is likely to im- 
 prove us. 
 
 This advantage, which we receive from Anatomy, of find- 
 ing out the real difeafe after death, has been fo generally 
 adopted by the moderns, that the cafes already publifhed are 
 almofl innumerable ; Mangetus, Morgagni, indeed many of 
 the befl: modern writings in pbyfic are full of them. And 
 if we look among the phyficians of the beft character, and 
 obferve thofe who have the art itfelf, rather than the craft 
 of the profeflion at heart; we fliall find them conftantly 
 taking pains to procure leave to examine the bodies of their 
 patients after death ; defirous that it may be done by expe- 
 rienced Anatomifls (a circumftance often of the higheft im- 
 portance) and unhappy when they cannot procure this op- 
 portunity of improving themfelves, and their art. 
 
 Were 
 
[ 73 J 
 
 Vv’'ere T to guefs at the moH: probable future improve- 
 ments in phyfjc, I fliould fay, that they would arife from 
 a more general, and more accurate examination of difeafej 
 after death. And were I to place a man of proper talents^ 
 in the mod; diredl road for becoming truely great in his 
 profeliion, I would chufe a good prafHcal Anatomift, and put 
 ■him into a large hofpital to attend the ficky and diffedl the 
 dead. 
 
 After having confidered the rife, and progrefs of Anatomy j 
 the various difcoveries that have been made in it, from time 
 to time ; the great number of diligent obfervers who have 
 applied themfelves to this art ; and the importance of the 
 fludy, not only for the prevention and cure of difeafes, but 
 in furnilhing the livelieft proofs of divine wifdom ; the fol- 
 lowing quedions feem naturally to arife. For what purpofe 
 is there fuch a variety of parts in the human body ? Why 
 fuch a complication of nice and tender machinery ? Why 
 was there not rather a more limple, lefs delicate, and iefs 
 expenfive frame ? 
 
 That beginners in the dudy of Anatomy, may acquire a 
 fatisfadory general idea of their fubjedl, we fhall furnilh them 
 with clear anfv\’ers to all fuch quedions. Let us then, in 
 our imagination, make a man : in other words, let us fup- 
 pofe that the rjiindy or immaterial part, is to be placed in 
 a corporeal fabric, to hold a correfpondence with other ma- 
 terial beings by the intervention of the body; and, then 
 confider, a priori^ what will be wanted for her accommo- 
 dation. In this enquiry, we diall plainly fee the necedity, 
 or advantage, and therefore, the Jinal caufe of mod of the 
 
 part&5 
 
[■74 ] 
 
 part?, which we a^lually find in the human body. And if 
 we confider that, in order to anfwer Ibme of the requifites, 
 human wit and invention would be very infufiicient ; we need 
 not be furprized, if we meet with fome parts of the body, 
 whofe ufe we cannot yet make out, and with fome opera- 
 tions or fun<!dions which we cannot explain. We can fee, 
 and comprehend, that the whole bears the ftrongefi; charadlers 
 of excelling wifdom and ingenuity: but the imperfedf fenfes 
 and capacity of many cannot pretend to reach every part of 
 a machine, which nothing lefs than the intelligence and power 
 of the Supre?ne Beings could contrive and execute. 
 
 To proceed then, in the firfl place, the m'lndi the think- 
 ing, immaterial agent, mufh be provided with a place of 
 immediate refidence ; which fhall have all the requifites for 
 the union of fpirit and body ; accordingly flie is provided 
 with the brainy where fhe dwells as governor and fuperintend- 
 ant of the whole fabric. 
 
 In the fecond place, as Ihe is to hold a correfpondence with 
 all the material beings which furround her, flie mufi: be fup- 
 plied with organs fitted to receive the diiferent kinds of im- 
 preflions, that they will make. In fadl therefore, we fee, that 
 ihe is provided with the organs of fenfe, as we call them : 
 the eye is adapted to light ; the ear, to found ; the nofe to 
 fmell; the mouth, to taftei and the Ikin to touch. 
 
 In the third place, fhe muff be provided with organs of 
 communication, between herfelf, in the brain, and thofe or- 
 gans of fenfe j to give her information of all the imprefiions 
 that are made upon them : and fhe inuft have organs between 
 
 herfelfj 
 
[ 75 J . 
 
 herfelf, in the brain, and every other part of the body, htted 
 to convey her commands and influence over the whole. For 
 thefe purpofes the nerves are adually given. They are chords, 
 which rife from the brain, the immediate refldence of the 
 mind, and difperfe themfelves in branches through all parts 
 of the body. They convey all the different kinds of fenfa- 
 tions to the mind, in the brain ; and likewife carry out from 
 thence all her commands or influence to the other parts of 
 the body. They are intended to be occafional monitors, againff 
 all fuch impreflions as might endanger the well-being of the 
 whole, or of any particular part ; which vindicates the Cre- 
 ator of all things, in having adually fubjecled us to thofe 
 many difagreeable and painful fenfations which we are expofed 
 to, from a thoufand accidents in life. 
 
 Further, the mind, in this corporeal fyfliem, mufl: be endued 
 with the power of moving from place to place, that Ihe may have 
 intercourfe with a variety of objeds ; that Ihe may fly from 
 fuch as are difagreeable, dangerous, or hurtful, and purfue fuch 
 as are pleafant, or ufeful to her. And accordingly, Ihe is 
 furnifiied with limbs, and with mufcles and tendons, the 
 inflruments of motion, which are found in every part of the 
 fabric, where motion is neceffary. 
 
 But, to fupport, to give firmnefs and thape to the fabric ; 
 to keep the fofter parts in their proper places ; to give fixed 
 points for, and the proper diredion to its motions ; as well 
 as to proted fome of the more important and tender organs 
 from external injuries ; there mufl: be fome firm prop-work 
 interwoven through the whole. And in fad, for fuch purpofes 
 the bones are given. 
 
 L 
 
 The 
 
[ 7 « ] 
 
 The prop-work rnufl not be made into one rigid fabric, 
 for that would prevent motion. Therefore there are a number 
 of bones. 
 
 Thefe pieces muft all be firmly bound together, to prevent 
 their diflocation. And, in fa£t, this end is perfed;ly well an- 
 fwered by the ligaments. 
 
 The extremities of thefe bony pieces, where they move, 
 and rub upon one another, mufl have fmooth and flippery 
 furfaces, for eafy motion. This is moft happily provided for, 
 by the cartilages and mucus of the joints. 
 
 The interflices of all thefe. parts muft be filled up with 
 fome foft and du6lile'' matter, which fliall keep them in their 
 places, unite them, and at the fame time allow them to- 
 move a little upon one another. This end is accordingly 
 anfwefed by the cellular membrane, or adipofe fubflance. • 
 
 There mufl be an outward covering over the whole appara- 
 tus, both to give it a firm compadtnefs, and to defend it from 
 a thoufand injuries ; which, in fadl, are the very purpofes of 
 the fkin, and other integuments. 
 
 And, as (he is made for fociety, and intercourfe with beings 
 of her own kind, fhe mufl be endued with powers of expref- 
 fing and communicating her thoughts, by fome fenfible marks 
 or figns ; which flaall be both eafy to herfelf, and admit of 
 great variety. And, accordingly fire is provided with the 
 organs and faculty of fpeech ; by which fhe can throw out 
 figns with amazing facility, and vary them without end. 
 
 Thus 
 
t 77 ] 
 
 Thus we have built up an animal body v/hich would feem- 
 to be pretty compleat. But we have not yet made any pro- 
 vifion for its duration. And, as it is the nature of matter to 
 be altered, and worked upon by matter; fo, in a very little 
 time, fuch a living creature mull be dedroyed, if there is no 
 provilion for repairing the injuries which Ihe mud commit 
 upon herfelf, and the injuries which fhe mud be expofed to 
 from v/ithout. Therefore a treafure of blood is actually pro- 
 vided in the heart and vafcular fydem, full of nutritious and 
 healing particles, fluid enough to penetrate into the minuted 
 parts of the animal ; impelled by the heart, and con- 
 veyed by the arteries, it wadies every part, builds up what 
 was broken down, and fweeps away the old and ufelefs ma- 
 terials. Hence we fee the neceflity, or advantage of the heart 
 and arterial fydem. 
 
 What more there was of this blood, than enough to repair 
 the prefent damages of the machine, mud not be lod, but 
 fhould be returned again to the heart : and for this purpofe 
 the venal fydem is adually provided. Thefe requifltes m 
 the animal, explain, a priori, the circulation of the blood. 
 
 The old materials which were become ufelefs, and are fwept 
 off by the current of blood, mud be feparated and thrown out 
 of the fydem. Therefore glands, the organs of fecretion, are 
 given, for draining whatever is redundant, vapid, or noxi- 
 ous, from the mafs of blood ; and when drained, they are 
 thrown out by emunctories, called excretories. 
 
 Now, as the fabric mud be condantly wearing, the repa- 
 ration mud be carried on without intermidion, and the drainers 
 mud always be employed. Therefore there is actually a per- 
 
 L 2 petual 
 
[ 73 J 
 
 petiial circulation of the blood, and the fecretlons are alvsrays. 
 going on. 
 
 But even all this provifion would not be fufhcient; for, 
 that flore of blood would foon be confumed, and 'the fabric 
 would break down, if there were not a provifion made for 
 frefh fupplies. Thefe we obferve, in fadt, are profufely fcat- 
 tered round her, in the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; and 
 flae is provided with hands, the fined inflruments that could 
 have been contrived, for gathering them, and for preparing^ 
 them in a variety of different ways for the month. 
 
 Thefe fupplies, which we call food, mud be confiderablyr 
 changed ; they mud be converted into blood. Therefore die 
 is provided with teeth for cutting and bruifing the food, 
 and with a domach for melting it down: in fhort, with all 
 the organs fubfervient to digedion. The finer parts of the 
 aliments only, can be ufeful. in the conditution thefe mud 
 be taken up, and conveyed into the blood, and the dregs 
 mud be thrown off. With this view the intedinal canal is 
 a <dAial 4 y given. It feparates the nutritious part, which we 
 call chyle, to be conveyed into the blood, by the fydem of 
 abforbent veffels and the fasces pafs downwards, to he coa- 
 dudled out of the body. 
 
 Now we have got our animal not only furnifhed with what 
 is wanted for its immediate exidence j but alfo, with the 
 powers of fpinning out that exidence, to an indefinite length 
 of time. But its duration, we may prefume, mud neceffarily 
 be limited : for as it is nourifhed, grows, and is raifed up 
 to its full ftrength. and utmod perfedion i fo it mud, in time, 
 
 in 
 
[ 79 ] 
 
 in common with all material beings, begin to decay ; and 
 then hurry on to final ruin. Hence we fee the neceffity of 
 a I'cheme for renovation. Accordingly wife Providence, to 
 perpetuate, as well as preferve his work, befides giving a flrong 
 appetite for life and felf-prefervation, has made animals, male 
 and female, and given them fuch organs and pallions, as will 
 fecure the propagation of the fpecies, to the end of the 
 W’orld. 
 
 Thus we fee, that by the very imperfedl: furvey, which 
 human reafon is able to take of this fubjedt, the animal man 
 muft neceffarily be complex in his corporeal fyftem, and in it& 
 operations. 
 
 He muft have one great and general fyftem, the vafculary 
 branching through the whole, for circulation. Another, the 
 nervous, with its appendages, the organs of fenfe, for every 
 kind of feeling. And, a third, for the union and connection 
 of all thofe parts. 
 
 Befides thefe primary and general fyftems, he requires otherSj» 
 which may be more local or confined ; one for ftrength, fup- 
 port, and protection ; the bony compages : another for the re- 
 quifite motions of the parts among themfelves, as well as for 
 moving from place to place ; the mufcular part of the 
 body : another to prepare nourifliment for the daily recruit of 
 the body j the digeftive organs : and one for propagating the 
 fpecies; the organs of generation. 
 
 And, in taking this general furvey of what would appear, 
 
 « priori, to be neceffary for adapting an animal to the fitua- 
 
 tions 
 
[ 8o ] 
 
 ations of humanity, we obferve, with great fatIsfacfHon, that 
 man is accordingly, in fadl, made of luch fyftems, and for 
 fuch purpofes. He has them all j and he has nothing more, 
 except the organs of refpiration. Breathing we cannot ac- 
 count for a priori : we only know that it is, in faBy effen- 
 tial and neceffary to life. Notwithftanding this, when we 
 fee all the other parts of the body, and their functions, fo 
 well accounted for; and fo wifely adapted to their feveral 
 purpofes, we cannot doubt that refpiration is fo likewife. 
 And if ever we fliould be happy enough to find out clearly 
 the objed of this fundion, we fhall doubtlefs, as clear- 
 ly fee, that the organs are wifely contrived for an impor- 
 tant office, as we now fee the purpofe and importance of the 
 heart, and vafcular fyftem ; which till the circulation of the 
 blood was difcovered, was wholly concealed from us. 
 
 The ufe and neceffity of all the different fyflems in a man’s 
 body, is not more apparent, than the wifdom and contrivance 
 which has been exerted in putting them all into the moll: 
 compad and convenient form; and in difpofing them fo, 
 that they lhall mutually receive, and give helps to one ano- 
 ther ; and that all, or many of the parts, fhall not only an- 
 fwer their principal end or purpofe, but operate fuccefsfully 
 and ufefully, in many fecondary ways. 
 
 If we underfland ’and confider the whole animal machine 
 in this light, and compare it with any machine, in which 
 human art has exerted its utmoft, fuppofe the bell confiruc- 
 ted ffiip that ever was built ; we fhall be convinced, beyond 
 the poffibility of doubt, that there is intelligence and power, 
 far furpaffing what humanity can boaff of. 
 
 In 
 
In making fuch a comparifon, there is a peculiarity and 
 fuperiority in the natural machine, which cannot efcape ob- 
 fervation. It is this : in machines of human contrivance or 
 art, there is no internal power, no principle in the machine 
 itfelf, by which it can alter and accommodate itfelf to any 
 injury which it may fuffer ; or, make up any injury which 
 is reparable. But in the natural machine, ,the animal body, 
 this is mod: wonderfully provided for, by internal powers 
 in the machine itfelf; many of which are not more certain 
 and obvious in their effedls, than they are above all human 
 comprehenfion, as to the manner and means of their opera- 
 tion. Thus, a wound heals up of itfelf ; a broken bone is 
 made firm again by a callus ,• a dead part is feparated and 
 thrown off; noxious juices are driven out by fome of the 
 emundtories ; a redundancy is removed by fome fpontaneous 
 bleeding; a bleeding naturally flops of itfelf; and a great 
 lofs of blood, from any caufe, is, in fome meafure compen- 
 fated, by a contradling power in the vafcular fyfcem, which 
 accommodates the capacity of the veffels to the quantity con- 
 tained. The flomach gives information when the fupplies 
 have been expended ; reprefents, with great exadnefs, the 
 quantity and the quality of what is wanted in the prefent 
 flate of the machine ; and, in proportion as fire meets with 
 negled, rifes in her demand, urges her petition with a louder 
 voice, and with more forceible arguments; for its protec- 
 tion, an animal body refifls heat and cold in a very won- 
 derful manner, and preferves an equal temperature, in a burning 
 and in a freezing atmofphere. 
 
 There is a farther excellence, or fuperiority in the natural 
 machine,' if poffible, ftill more aflonifhing, more beyond all 
 human co.mprehenfion, than what we have been fpeaking of. 
 
 Befides 
 
[ 82 ] 
 
 Befide? thofe internal powers of felf-prefervation in each in- 
 dividual ; when two of them co-operate, or adl in concert, 
 tliey^ are endued with powers of making other animals, or 
 machines like themfelves ; wdaich again are poflefled of the 
 fame powers of producing others, and fo of multiplying the 
 ipecics without end. 
 
 Tbefe are powers which mock all human invention or 
 imitation. They are charadleriftics of the divine architect. 
 
 Having premifed this general account of our fubjedl, we 
 /liall next confider the method to be obferved in ftudying 
 .Anatomy. In order to treat this art didindtly, and with per- 
 fpiculty, we muft follow either what is called the analytic, 
 or the fynthetic method. The analytic, is that of refolving, 
 or taking down the whole or compound, into its more and 
 more fimple parts ; till at length we come to examine, even 
 the mod fimple, uncompounded ingredients. The fynthetic 
 is the reverfe : in this method we begin with the mod fim- 
 ple, elementary parts ; and proceed gradually to the more com- 
 pound. 
 
 As it is in Science, fo in Anatomy, we might expedl that 
 the analytic method fhould be the mod fit, in the enquiries 
 which we undertake, with the view of making difeoveries . 
 and the fynthetic more proper, when we propofe to teach. 
 Thus, to ufe a familiar example, fuppofe an ignorant man were 
 to try to find out the condrudlion of a watch ; he would na- 
 turally fird look carefully upon the whole, and then he would 
 cautioufly take it to pieces; obferving the relations that the 
 parts have to one another as he proceeded, till he had re- 
 duced it to its mod fimple parts. This would be the diredl 
 
 and 
 
[ 83 ] 
 
 and natural way of finding out the mechanifin. But if that 
 man were to be taught the confirudion of a watch, by an 
 artifi:, in order to give him a clearer and more demonfirative 
 view of the machine, the artift would naturally prefer the 
 lynthetic method; he would begin by explaining the matter, 
 and form, and general ufe of the fpring, the wheels, and 
 other fimple parts, then he would proceed to the relations 
 they bear to one another ; from the fimple he would go to 
 the more compound ; from fmall to larger mafies of machinery; 
 and end with the idea of the whole. 
 
 Were the fabric of the human body perfeflly underfiood ; and 
 were its conftituent parts as fimple, and as naanageable as thofe 
 of a watch, we fhould not hefitate to prefer the fynthetic 
 method, in a courfe of ledtures ; and then the demonfirator 
 might be called a teacher. Accordingly many of the fyftematic 
 treatifes are compofed upon this plan. 
 
 But the ftrudlure of an animal body, is hitherto fo im- 
 perfedtly underftood, the machinery fo infinite, the parts fo 
 delicate, and their relations to, and influence upon one ano- 
 ther fo incomprehenfible, that with this view of the fubjedl, 
 the demonftrator, as well as the fludent, fliould look upon 
 himfelf in the true and humble light of an enquirer, and 
 follow the method of invefligation. And many of our befl: 
 fyftems of Anatomy are compofed in this method. We 
 may obferve, however, that as fome parts of the body are 
 better adapted to one method, and fome to the other, we 
 fhali make ufe of both occafionally. And as our time mufl: 
 be limited, and fit materials are not always to be had, we 
 fhall fometimes be obliged to alter, not only the method, 
 but die more common order likewife; and fo, to anticipate, 
 
 M or 
 
[ 84 ] 
 
 or poftpone fometliing, as the circutnftances of our dead bodies 
 lu ay dir eft. 
 
 The fludy of the human body is commonly divided into 
 two parts. The firfl:, which is called Anatomy y relates to the 
 matter and ftrufture of its parts j the fecond, called Phyfiologjy 
 and Animal ceconomy, relates to the principles and laws of its 
 internal operations and functions. 
 
 As the body is a compound of folids and fluids. Anatomy 
 is divided into, 
 
 1. The Anatomy of the folids, and 
 
 2. The Anatomy of the fluids. 
 
 The folidsy by which we mean all parts of our body, 
 which are not fluid, are generally divided into two claflTes, 
 viz. 
 
 1. The hard folids or bones; and that part of Anatomy 
 is called ofleology ; whicia fignifies the dodlrine of the bones, 
 
 2 . The fofter folids, which part is called farcology, viz, 
 the doftrine of flefli. 
 
 This divifion of the folids, we may obferve, has probably 
 taken its origin from the vulgar obfervatfon, that the body 
 is made of bone and flefli. And, as there are many different 
 kinds of what are called foft or fleffy parts, farcology is fub- 
 divlded into. 
 
 I. Angeiology, 
 
[ ] 
 
 1. Angeiology, or the doctrine of vefTels, by which is com^ 
 monly undcrftood blood-vejfeh, 
 
 2. Adenology, of glands, 
 
 3. Neurology, of nerves. 
 
 4. Myology, of Mufcles, and, 
 
 5. Splanchnology, of the vifcera or bowels 1 and there is, 
 befides, that part which treats of the organs of fenfe, and 
 of the integuments. 
 
 This divilion of the folids has been retained, rather for 
 the fake of explaining fo many words, which are conflantly 
 ufed by Anatomifts, than for its importance or accuracy. For, 
 befides many other objedlions that might be urged, there are 
 in the body, three fpecies of folids, viz. griftle or cartilage, 
 hair, and nails, which are of an intermediate nature between 
 bone and fiefii ; and therefore cannot fo properly be brought 
 into the ofteology, or farcology. The cartilages were claf-» 
 fed with the bones, becaufe the greatefi: number of them, 
 are appendages to bones ; and for the like reafon the hair, 
 and the nails were clafiTed with the integuments. 
 
 For the fake likewife of explaining the meaning of words 
 which often occur in older writers, I mufi: jufi; mention 
 two divifions of the folids, which are now in difufe. 
 
 I. They faid that the folids were either fimilar, or difii- 
 milar. Of the fimilar clafs, w'ere bones, mufcles, &c. which 
 were thought to be homogeneous, or made up of fimilar parts. 
 
 M 2 The 
 
[ 86 ] 
 
 I’he finger, the eye, 6cc. they called a difiknilar part, becaufe 
 compofed of ingredients of very different natures: the eye be- 
 ing made up of membranes and humours. The moderns have 
 dropt this divifion of the folids, becaufe they know that a 
 mufcle and a bone are each of them compounds of parts that 
 are unlike. 
 
 The other obfolete divifion of the folids, is that of i.Jan- 
 guinaryt and 2. fpermatic. Such parts of our body as are 
 plentifully fupplied with blood-vefiels, and are thence red co- 
 loured, the mufcles for example, they called fanguinary j and 
 the expreffion may be ufeful. The abfurdity is in the next 
 part of the divifion. Such parts of our body as have few 
 or no red blood-veffels, and are confequently of a pale or 
 white colour, tendons and cartilages, for example, they called 
 fpermatic. 
 
 The fluids of our body, for we have gone through the 
 divifion of the folids, may be divided into three kinds, which 
 I fhall call the criidey the general or perfehl, and the local or 
 fecreted jliiid. 
 
 1. By the crude fluid we mean, the chyle, and whatever is 
 abforbed at the furfaces of our body : in other words, what 
 is recently taken into the body, and is not yet mixed with, 
 or converted into blood, 
 
 2. The general or perfeB fluid, is the blood itfelfj to wit, 
 what is contained in the heart, arteries, and veins, and is go- 
 ing on, in the round of the circulation. 
 
 3. The 
 
f 87- ] 
 
 The local or fecretedi are thofe fluids, peculiar to parti- 
 cular parts of the body, which are ftrained off from the blood, 
 and yet are very different in their properties from the blood. 
 They are commonly called fecretions ; and fome are ufeful, 
 ethers excrementitious. 
 
 Some authors have thought, that the folids only are the fub- 
 Jedts of Anatomy, and that the fluids belong to the Phyflology. 
 This can only mean, that we cannot anatomize, becaufe we 
 cannot cut or diffedl fluids j which is a difpute about words. 
 The folids and fluids are equally the objedts of our fenfes ; 
 and the matter and properties of both mull; be underflood, 
 before we can know even the flrudlure of our body. 
 
 In explaining the flrudlure of the parts, if a teacher would 
 be of real fervice, he mufl take care, not barely to defcribe 
 but to fhew or demonflrate every part. What the fludent 
 acquires in this way, is folid knowledge, arifing from the 
 information of his own fenfes : thence his ideas are dear,, 
 and make a lafting impreffion upon his memory,. 
 
 It is therefore neceffary, for giving a complete courfe of 
 Anatomy, to provide a number of freJJo fubjedlsy and to have 
 a competent flock of anatomical preparatiojis.. 
 
 The dead body cannot be too frefh for diffcdlion ; every 
 hour that it is kept, it is lofing fomething of its fitnefs 
 for anatomical demonflrations ; the blood is tranfuding, and 
 bringing all the parts nearer to one colour, which takes off 
 the natural and diflindl appearance ; and putrefadlion is ad- 
 vancing, which makes all the flefhy parts tender and indiflindl, 
 
 A fubjedt. 
 
[ 88 ] 
 
 A fubjed is commonly of little ufe for demonftratlon, af- 
 ter eight or ten days j though the circumftances of habit, dif- 
 eafe, and weather, will fometimes make a great deal of dif- 
 ference. There is another reafon for providing a number of 
 dead bodies in fucceffion for one courfe; difeafes frequently 
 alter the date of the parts, fo as to render them unlit for 
 a demonferation of their natural condition. Thence it is 
 that we are under a neceffity of having, fometimes, feveral 
 fubjeds to lliew the bowels only. 
 
 For thefe reafons we may conclude, that, except there be 
 an avowed edabiilhment, for a plentiful fupply of dead bodies, 
 a truely ufeful, and complete courfe of Anatomy, can only 
 be given in a great city. Whatever pity it may be, that 
 
 fo few profelTors can have fufficient fupplies of dead bodies, 
 
 we Ihould be very unreafonable to blame thofe who cannot 
 have that advantage. 
 
 After this obfervation, which candour obliges me to make, 
 
 I may be allowed to illuftrate the dodtrine by an example. 
 
 In the courfe of my own ftudies, I attended, as diligently 
 
 as the generality of ftudents do, one of the mod reputable ’ 
 
 courfes of Anatomy in Europe : there I learned a good deal 
 by my ears j but almod nothing by my eyes j and therefore, 
 hardly any thing to the purpofe. The defedl was, that the 
 profedbr was obliged to demondrate all the parts of the body^ 
 except the bones, nerves, and vedels, upon one dead body. 
 There was a feetus for the nerves and blood-velTels ; and 
 the operations of furgery were explained, to very little pur- 
 pofe indeed, upon a dog. And, in the only courfe which 
 I attended in London, which was by far the mod reputable 
 
 that 
 
r 89 I 
 
 that was given here, the profeiTor ufed only two dead bodies 
 in his courfe. The confequence was, that at one of thefe 
 places, all was harangue ; very little was diftindly feen : 
 in the other, the courfe was contradled into too fmall a 
 compafs of time, and therefore feveral material parts of Ana- 
 tomy were left out entirely. 
 
 Belides dead bodies, we faid, that a profedbr of Anatomy 
 fhould have a competent flock of freparatlons. Thefe are, 
 parts of the body, artfully prepared by dilTedtion, or fome other 
 methods, and preferved from putrefadlion ; fo that they may 
 be ready to be confulted occahonally. 
 
 Preparations ferve two purpofes chiefly, to wit, the pre- 
 fervation of uncommon things, and the prefervation of fuch 
 things as required conflderable labour to anatomize them, 
 fo ^as to fliew their llrudture diflindtly. Of the flrft fort are, 
 the pregnant uterus, difeafes, parts of Angular conformation, &c. 
 Of the fecond clafs are, preparations of the ear, the eye, and, 
 in general, fuch as fhew the very Ane and delicate parts of 
 the body, which we call the minutiae of Anatomy. 
 
 There are two diAerent methods of preferving animal parts ^ 
 one is putting them into fpirits, or fuch liquors as prevent 
 putrefaction j and then they are called wet preparations: the 
 other is, by drying them ; after which they are covered with 
 a varnifli, which preferves them from the injuries of the air, 
 and from infedls. Thefe are called dry preparations. 
 
 Both kinds have advantages and' difadvantages : both are 
 ufeful i but for the mofl: part, the wet are preferable to the 
 dry, becaufe they are more like nature. For, this is the 
 
 defedt 
 
[ 9 ° ] 
 
 nefed- of all preparations, that they lofe more or lefs of the 
 natural appearance. The wet lofe their colour and tranfpa- 
 rency, and fuffer even a change in their texture, from the 
 reftringency of the fpirits, in which they are commonly fuf-. 
 pended. The dry lofe their complexion and confiftence ; and> 
 except the bones, moh; of them retain little of their natu- 
 ral fize and flaape. We may be affured, therefore, that it 
 is wrong to take ideas of the parts of our body from pre- 
 parations, when they can be feen diftindly in the freOi fub« 
 jed. 
 
 It is pity that preparations, which may be made fo ufe- 
 ful to Anatomy, fliould in any way become detrimental to 
 it. Yet it is certain, that in fome courfes formerly given, 
 ftudents were rather amufed with elegant preparations, than 
 inilruded in the elTentials of folid Anatomy. We have known 
 gentlemen of fenfe, learning, and application, attend repeated 
 courfes of that . fort j and after all confefs, that upon open- 
 ing a dead body, they could fcarcely point out the different 
 vifcera. 
 
 Might we not afk any man of common fenfe, what idea 
 he can have of the nerves, for inflance, if he has only feen 
 them when they have been diffeded from the body, pined 
 out and dryed upon a flat board ? Or what his notions are, 
 of that foft and fpungy membrane which lines the nofe, if 
 he has only feen it dryed upon the bones, full of vermilion 
 veflels, and covered with a fhining varnifh ? 
 
 Preparations fhould not be ufed as fubflitutes for a body; 
 but fupplementally, to demonflrate fuch circumftances clearly* 
 as are intricate, confufed, or invifible in the frefh fubjed. 
 
 And, 
 
91 
 
 And, a demonflrator who makes line preparations, fhould be 
 very much upon his guard ; other wife, he will be apt to 
 make an abufe of preparations j he will, infenhbly, contract 
 a partiality to that in which he excels ; the elegance of 
 preparations is delulive with fcudents j and the more they are 
 ufed, there will be lefs expence and trouble with fre£h fub- 
 jedls. 
 
 Some Anatomifls in our times, endeavoured to propagate 
 and fupport a very ill grounded opinion, viz, that in the 
 ftudy of Anatomy, preparations are almoll always either ufe- 
 lefs, or hurtful : ujelefs^ they faid, becaufe the fame things 
 might be feen in a more natural Ifate; and hurtful^ becaufe 
 they give falfe ideas, inafmuch as the natural condition of 
 the part is changed. One of thofe Anatomifts would de- 
 claim upon injedions firetching the blood-veffels beyond their 
 natural flate ; and would plead, that Morgagni and Window, 
 hardly made any ufe of preparations. Another would ha- 
 rangue in the fame ftile, growing angry as he went on ; and 
 then would pretend to give a clear proof of his fuppofition, 
 by (hewing his pupils a dried, flirunk, and corrugated mufcle, 
 as a preparation : which he would compare with a beautiful, 
 frefh diffeded mufcle, in its natural flate and fituation; 
 and then appeal to their eyes for convidion. Here was 
 fome plaufibility of argument, drawn out of mifreprefenta- 
 tion and delufion. In fad, they were both out of humour 
 with, and jealous of a third perfon, who was making ufe 
 of preparations fuccefsfally j and they had almofl none: which 
 lafl circumflance alone, is enough to render it at lead, pro- 
 blematical, whether their condud was not an illudration of 
 the well known fable of the four grapes. 
 
 N 
 
 Both 
 
[ 92 ] 
 
 Both of thofe gentlernsn demon (Ira ted the bones, not in 
 a freOi fubjed:, and in their natural (late, with all their 
 marrow and periofteum, and tendons, and ligaments ; but 
 upon the artificial (lieleton ; that is, - upon a preparation made 
 by boiling and deeping, for the fake of (liewing more clearly 
 the figure and features of bones. This preparation they ufed 
 becaufe it was very ufeful to (Indents, and becaufe they could 
 make it : but fuch preparations as they had not, either be- 
 caufe they could not, or would not, take the pains to make 
 them : they faid were ufelefs or hurtful. 
 
 In a matter fo evident and demonftrable as the ufefulnefs 
 of preparations, I not only can rely upon my own judge- 
 ment, but I have the concurring opinion of all the fenfible 
 men who ever honoured me with their attendance. I never 
 talked with one of them, who did not fay that he received 
 much improvement from what he faw exhibited in prepa- 
 rations. The appearances of difeafes, except now and then 
 by accident, cannot be otherwife demonftrated. What advan- 
 tages then mud a teacher have, were it only in this way, who 
 by preparations can demondrate, in many hundred indances, 
 the changes which are adlually produced in the human body, 
 by different difeafes. 
 
 In my fituation, and at this time of life, it cannot be 
 -y- fuppofed that I (hould take the trouble of giving ledlures, if 
 I did not condder it as a duty that I owe to the public. 
 Every man (hould be held as a criminal who locks up 
 his talent, whatever it may be. Mine, from nature was fmall ; 
 but, by application and perfeverance, it has grown to be 
 condderable. Hitherto it has been diligently employed for the 
 advantage of others 5 and at the fame time it has brought to 
 
 myfelf^ 
 
[ 93 ] 
 
 myfelf, all the advantages which I have been ambitioas of 
 gaining. I have colle6led 'fuch an anatomical apparatus, as 
 was never brought together in any age or country. The 
 fpecimens of difeafes, efpecially, are ineflimable, and muft 
 
 render a courfe of ledlures here, inftrudlive and ufeful to any 
 man, wherever he may have fludied, or whatever he may 
 have feen. And, it may be prefumed, that, from knowing 
 my own colledlion beft, and from long experience in de- 
 monftrating them, I am better qualified to make them ufe- 
 ful to the v/orld, than at this time, any other man can be. 
 That confideration has induced me to go on with my lec- 
 tures : and, with that viewj I am much more ambitious of 
 
 a few ftudents, who will attend with diligence, and with 
 
 a fincere defire of improvement, than of a great number. 
 The firfl: will give me fatisfaftion and credit j the laft would 
 only bring in a larger fum of money, which could be no 
 equivalent for the vexation of feeing young men throwing 
 away their time, when fuch an opportunity is offered. Fo^ 
 the future, money can be of no ufe to me, but for acquiring 
 and communicating fcience ; which fhall be my objedl, as 
 far, and as long as I can purfue it. 
 
 In treating of the phyfiology, it is very difficult to fay, what 
 plan we fhould follow ; for, every method which has been yet 
 propofed, is attended with manifefl inconvenience. The powers 
 anti operations of the machine, have fuch a dependence on 
 one another, fuch connexions and reciprocal influence, that 
 they cannot well be underftood, or explained, feparately. In 
 this fenfe, our body may be compared to a circular chain of 
 powers, in which nothing is firfl, or lafl; nothing folitary or 
 independent ; fo that wherever we begin, we find that 
 there is fomething preceding, which we ought to have 
 
 N 2 known. 
 
[ 94 ] 
 
 known. If we begin with the brain and the nerves, for ex- 
 ample, we fhall find, that thefe cannot exift, even in idea, 
 without the heart: and if we fet out with the heart and 
 
 vafcular fydem, we tliall prefently be fenfible, that the brain 
 and nerves mufi: be fuppofed : or, fliould we take up the 
 
 mouth, and follow the courfe of the aliment, we ihould fee 
 that the very firft organ which prefented itfelf, fuppofed the 
 exigence both of the heart and brain. Wherefore, 'we 'flaall 
 incorporate the Phyfiology with the Anatomy ; by attempting 
 to explain the functions, when we have demonftrated the or- 
 gans. 
 
 / 
 
 Tlae animal oeconorny, indeed, is fo extenfive a field, and 
 takes fo much light from philofophy, and other arts, that in 
 moft univerfities, it has been found neceffary to appoint two 
 profelTors, one for Anatomy, and the other for the Phyfiold^. 
 Undoubtedly the man who makes, it his bufinefs, to invehi- 
 gate every thing relating to the flmclure of the human body, 
 mull be, cceteris paribus, the fittell perfon to explain its ope- 
 rations ; and there cannot be a more proper occalion, than 
 when the parts are before us. And, yet, in fome fenfe, it 
 is juft the reverfe : for, every good Anatomift, who has a 
 cool head, and keeps a guard over his imagination, knows, 
 that many of the received hypothefes in ’Phyfiology, are built 
 on very loofe foundations, and liable to weighty objedions 
 or, demonftrably repugnant to what we already know of the 
 ftrudure of our body. So that if the Anatomift is weak 
 enough, to think that he can, or that he muft explain, all 
 the operations of the machine, he will certainly make partial 
 diffedions, miflead himfelf and others, and put a thoufand little 
 arts in pradice, to make the ftrudure ccrrefpond with the ima- 
 ginary afe. 
 
 This 
 
This unguarded proceeding, which has been too much 
 the manner of teachers, though it may ftrike weak, unculti- 
 vated minds with reverence, yet by men of finer inteliedts it 
 is conftrued, with great propriety, an indignity thrown out 
 againfl the great Author of all things. It is indirectly paffing 
 ofF our own trifling fchemes, and filly conceits, for his infinitely 
 wife and extenfive views. It is not fliewing us what we are, 
 but what we Jlioiild have been\ and in effedt, therefore, is a 
 piece of prefumption, which moves the indignation of all 
 men, who look upon the works of nature with that humi- 
 lity and awe, v/hich the dignity of the objedl demands, 
 
 I muft therefore expedf, that you will not hereafter be 
 furprized, when you find me avowing great ignorance, in 
 many of the mofl; confiderable queftions relating to animal 
 operations ; fuch as, fenfation, motion, refpiration, digeftion> 
 generation, &c. In my opinion all thefe fubjedts are much 
 lefs underffood, than moft people think them. Our vanity 
 deceives us, and perfuades us that we have got the whole, as 
 foon as we have acquired a fmattering of natural know- 
 ledge. f)fsnce it is, that the different fedts of Phyfiologiils, have 
 endeavoured "to explain animal fundlions upon fuch different 
 principles. Hence, for example, to account for digeffion, 
 fome have made the ffomach a mill ; fome would have it to 
 be a ftewing-pot ; and fome a wort-trough : yet all the while, 
 one would have thought that it muff have been very evident, 
 that the flomach was neither a mill, nor a flewing-pot, nor 
 a wort-trough, nor any thing but a flomach. 
 
 This fpecies of philofophy, has prevailed in many parts of 
 Phyfiology i and makes up a great part of what has been 
 commonly taught, as found and ufeful pbyfiological learning. 
 One thing, of peculiar properties and powers, has been explained 
 
[ 9 * ] 
 
 by another, ofdlfFerent properties and powers, as abfardly, as if 
 colours had been explained by founds. Animal fundions, gene- 
 rally fpeaking, are of a peculiar nature; and like nothing which 
 is to be found in the works of art, or wherever there is 
 not animation and life : and, had Phyfielogifts fpcnt that 
 time in making accurate obfervations upon animals themfelves, 
 which has been thrown away upon mechanical and chemi- 
 cal vifions, by this time we might have underftood animal 
 principles and proceffes, better than we now do. 
 
 The capital errors which have prevailed in different ages 
 in the philofophy of human bodies, are the following: 
 
 1. The palpable abfurdity of the older Anatomifls, in de- 
 fcribing the ftrudure, and fettling the fundions of our body, 
 by an examination made on brutes only — now fully exploded. 
 
 2. An abfurdity, prevalent with many moderns, that of 
 finding out, and afcertaining the. chemical changes produced 
 in our juices, by experiments made on dead matter out of 
 the body. 
 
 3. The third, an error which has been very generally in- 
 troduced into the writings of the beft modern authors, is 
 the drawing conclufions with regard to the living body, from 
 experiments made upon the dead body. This, in many cafes, 
 will be found to be fallacious ; and on that account many 
 dodrines and arguments of Kaw, Boerhaave, and others, will in 
 a little time be exploded. 
 
 4. A firnilar abfurdity, that of explaining the fundions of 
 our body, upon mechanical principles ; arguing ftill from 
 dead to living matter. 
 
 To 
 
[ 97 ] 
 
 To Hiew the flate of Phyfiology in this country, as late as the 
 ^earlier part of my life, I may quote a palTage from Dr. Friend’s 
 Hiftory of Phyfic, vol. ii. page 398, which was the prevailing 
 opinion of the times, fupported by Dr. Mead, we might al- 
 moft fay by the college of phyficians, and univerfities of Oxford 
 and Cambridge. Speaking of the errors of modern Phyfiologifts^ 
 he fays, “ It were to be wilhed, that fome able hand would 
 fet this matter in a true light, and illuftrate it as far as may be, 
 by the unalterable laws which nature has imprelfed upon all 
 matter and motion: and indeed lince the human body is nothing 
 elfe but a fine contexture of folids and fluids, w^hich obferve the 
 rules mechayiiftriy it is amazing to find that men fliould think of 
 any other principles than the mechanical to explain it by. Would 
 any one go fo much out of the way, as to account for the mo- 
 tions of a watch, from the precarious dodlrine of acid and alkaliV" 
 
 Inftead of attempting to give any compleat fyflem of Phy- 
 fiology, we propofe to incorporate a fketch of it only, and 
 upon the following plan. 
 
 1. To lay before you the flrudlure of the parts, and the 
 known phaenomena, as data. 
 
 2. Then to explain briefly, the rnofl prevailing opinions or 
 hypothefes, with the principal arguments that have been 
 brought, either to fupport, or to overturn them. 
 
 3. In fome inftances to give our own opinion with cau- 
 tion and referve; but more generally to leave your judge- 
 ments free, that enquiry and improvement may go on. 
 
 Left I fhould be thought too fhort in the phyflological 
 part, I would beg leave to obferve, that, as far as it is yet 
 
 known. 
 
[ 98 ] 
 
 known, or has been explained by Haller, and the be/l of the 
 moderns, it may be eafily acquired by a ftudent, without a 
 mafter, provided the ftudent is acquainted with philofophy 
 and chemiftry, and is an expert and ready Anatomift; for 
 with thefe qualifications he can read any phyfiological book, 
 and can underftand it as faft as he reads. 
 
 In this age, when fo much has been printed upon the fub- 
 jedt, there is almofi; as little inducement to attend ledlures 
 upon Phyfiology, as there would be for gentlemen to at- 
 tend ledlures upon government, or upon the hiftory of Eng- 
 land. Ledures upon fubjeds which are perfedly intelligible 
 in print, cannot be of much ufe, except when given by fome 
 man of great abilities, who has laboured the fubjed, and who 
 has made confiderable improvements, either in matter or in 
 arrangement. 
 
 In our branch, thofe teachers who take but little pains to 
 demonftrate the parts of the body with precifion and clear- 
 nefs, but fludy to captivate young minds with ingenious fpe- 
 culation, will not leave a reputation that will outlive them half a 
 century. When they ceafe from their labours, their labours are 
 buried along with them. There never was a man, perhaps, 
 more followed and admired in Phyfiology, than Boerhaave. I re- 
 member the veneration he was held in ; and now, in the 
 fpace of forty years, his Phyfiology is—it fliocks me to think 
 in what a light it appears. 
 
 Anatomical ledures being intended to ferve as a folid 
 foundation for two fuch important arts as medicine and fur- 
 gery, a teacher cannot take too much pains to render them 
 lifeful : and if he be limited in time, it will require more 
 
 particular 
 
 1 
 
[ 99 3 
 
 particular care that the mod efTential things be well explain- 
 ed. And with that view he rnufl; be fatisfied, with touching 
 more lightly, fuch things as are of lefs importance; and even 
 to pafs over many things of little ufe, though perhaps cu- 
 rious ; for in the fludy of nature, there is no end, if we give 
 way to curiofity. 
 
 With this view of my fituation in life, I always have du- 
 died, and diall continue my endeavours to employ the time 
 that is given up to anatomical dudles, as ufefully to the du- 
 dents as I can poffibly make it. And therefore (hall never 
 aim at fliewing w'hat I know ; but labour to fhew, and de- 
 fcribe, as clearly as poffible, what they ought to know. This 
 plan rejefts all declamation, all parade, all wrangling, all fubtlety. 
 To make a Ihew, and to appear learned and ingenious in natural 
 knowledge, may flatter vanity : to know fa(ds, to feparate them 
 from fuppofltions, to range and connedt them, to make them 
 plain to ordinary capacities, and, above all, to point out the 
 ufeful applications, is, in my opinion, much more laudable, 
 and fhall be the objedl of my ambition. 
 
 Allow us here to remove a falfe notion w'hich has been cir- 
 culated, among thofe who have not had an opportunity of 
 knowing better. They imagined, or, fhould J rather fay, they 
 widied the world to imagine, that the ledlures given here, 
 are upon the higher, the more curious and fpeculative parts 
 of Anatomy ; and therefore above the comprehenflon of a be- 
 ginner. This I pofltively deny ; and would recommend it to 
 ftudents to judge of this queftion, by the teftimony of thofe 
 who mufl: be the bell: judges ; thofe who have adlually at- 
 tended the courfe. And when they take advice upon the befl: 
 plan for their fludies, let them remember, that few men can 
 
 O divefl: 
 
[ 100 ] 
 
 dived themfelves of prejudice, and that where prejudice has 
 tainted the mind, a fair and candid opinion, or advice, mud not 
 be expected. 
 
 Some people thought even my former courfes too long. 
 Why ? They had been ufed to fee a courfe of Anatomy 
 finidied in thirty or forty ledtures j and therefore imagined 
 that, when it took up near four months, it mud be unne- 
 cedarily minute or prolix. But, let them refledl how im- 
 perfedt fuch courfes were j let them recolledl, that they ne- 
 ver faw the human brain and nerves, nor the human lym- 
 phatic fydem, nor the human gravid uterus and its contents ; 
 let them recolledl, that there were few parts of the body, 
 which they underftood thoroughly, after attending even re- 
 peated courfes of that kind ; and then they will fee that 
 there was great room for improvement } and own that an op- 
 portunity of attending a more compleat courfe of anatomical 
 ledlures, mud be a national advantage. 
 
 It has been objedled likewife, that a ledlure of two hours 
 continuance, is too much : the attention mud flag, and the 
 memory cannot carry the fubdance of it away. 
 
 My anfwer to this is, that if there be ufeful bufinefs 
 enough, for two hours a day through the proper feafon, fo 
 much time nearly mud be given up to each ledlure j other- 
 wife a number of material things mud be omitted.- And, 
 there is enough of ufeful matter. Therefore, as I wifh to 
 adapt my labour to the attentive and diligent dudent, for the 
 benefit of the public, the objedlion might pafs without far- 
 ther notice. But, in fadl, a diligent dudent feldom^ tires j 
 
 ^becaufe 
 
[ I0> ] 
 
 bccaufe the novelty, or variety, or ufefulnefs, is continually 
 fixing his attention ; and he eafily carries off the lubiliance 
 of the whole leflure, becaufe it is not hurried, but given 
 with deliberation ; and he is not fimply hearing a ]e<fture, 
 but feeing a variety of intereiling objeffs, all in connedlion 
 with one another; and when the objects are finall, or the 
 fubjeft obfcure, a good deal of time is taken up, with re- 
 petitions of the demonftrations ; which gives time, either to 
 relax the attention, or to become more perfedily mafter of 
 the fubjed:. 
 
 So much for our fubjed, and for what is propofed on 
 our part. Allow me now, gentlemen, to fay what is ex- 
 peded of you. , .v* 
 
 In many parts of the education of^young men, the ob- 
 jed is not very confiderable j and will fo far admit of idle- 
 nefs in the fludent, that his being fo, will not effentially 
 affed, either his own happinefs, or that of others. Butin 
 our profeffion, the ftudy of Anatomy is the mod: ferious 
 bulinefs of life j whether we confider the duty, which ffu- 
 ^ents owe to themfelves, or to their friends and fellow-crea- 
 tures. It is an abfolutely neceffary foundation, upon which 
 they are to build their pradice, in curing difeafes ; and up- 
 on that will depend their fuccefs, and the figure which they 
 are to make in the world. 
 
 If they will be idle, whether from not having acquired 
 habits of application, or fronfi eagernefs to indulge themfelves 
 in youthful pleafures and diflipation, they mud lay their ac- 
 count with paying dearly for jt. They mud exped to be 
 draggling to raife themfelves in their profeffion, when the 
 
 O 2 . opportunit-^ 
 
[ 102 J 
 
 opportunity is pafl, when it is too late : they muft expedt 
 difappointrnents, vexations, and rebuffs in the world : in one 
 inllance they will not be employed, becaufs their ignorance 
 is known; in another, their want of qualification will be 
 difcovered by fome blunder committed ; a confultation will 
 be demanded, and they will be difmiffed with difgrace. 
 They will fee that their charadter is fettled, and that there 
 is an end of all ambitious views. They will therefore find 
 themfelves under the mortifying neceffity of treading a low 
 path in life, hardly able perhaps to get honefi; bread. And 
 when they are under difficulties of that fort, God only knows, 
 what they may be tempted to do, and what they may be 
 comoelled to fuffer. 
 
 But, if they will be diligent, they may expedl credit and 
 independence; they will endear themfelves to their friends, 
 and patients; they will be refpedled and courted by man- 
 kind ; they will every day receive the grateful bleflings of 
 she fick and lame, whom they have comforted or faved i 
 and all this put together, will furnifh a man of the bed re- 
 gulated ambition, of humanity and feeling, with as much 
 heart-felt fatisfaftion, as much real happinefs, as human na- 
 ture can well receive in this world. 
 
 This, gentlemen, as far as experience of the world has. 
 enabled me to judge, is certainly the alternative that is be- 
 fore you : and I firmly believe,.that it is in your power not 
 only to c/jiife, but to ^ave which rank you pleafe in the 
 world. An opinion, the child of fpleen and idlenefs, has 
 been propagated, which has done infinite prejudice to fcietice„ 
 as well as to virtue. They would have us believe, that merit 
 is negleded, and that jgnoraiKe and knavery triumph in this 
 
 world 
 
[ 103 ] 
 
 world. N0W5 in our profeffion it feems inconteftable, that 
 the man of abilities and diligence always fucceeds. Ability 
 indeed is not the only requiiite j and a man may fail, who 
 has nothing befides to recommend him ; or, w'ho has forae 
 great difqualification either of head or heart. But hck peo- 
 ple are fo defirous of life and health, that they always look 
 out for ability : and, furely the man who is really able in 
 
 his profeffion, will have the befl chance of being thought fo. 
 In my opinion, a young man cannot cultivate a more im- 
 portant truth than this, that merit is fure of its reward in 
 this world. I will flatter myfelf then that you will be 
 diligent. 
 
 A beginner in this ftudy ought by no means to be abfent 
 from a Angle ledture ; becaufe he would thereby lofe, not 
 only what v/as then demonflrated, but the chain and con^ 
 nedfion of things j and therefore he would lofe a part of 
 all that comes after. For the fame reafon, in the time of 
 demonftration, a beginner fhould not allow his attention to 
 be called off, even for a moment ; lefl; he fhould lofe fomc- 
 thing of importance. Upon this account, I think it injudi- 
 cious in a beginner, to write notes in the time of a ledture. 
 H is buflnefs is, Arfl; of all, to get clear ideas of every thing. 
 His eyes and ears are to be employed in that fervice- only. 
 He is firfh to underftand j let him remember as he can. And 
 to fay the truth, as it is a difficult tafk to remember 
 what we do not underftand j fo, it is hardly poffible to for- 
 get, what we clearly and fully comprehend. So that in 
 getting diftindt and clear ideas, efpecially of the objedts of 
 our fenfes, we are taking the beft method of fixing them- 
 for ever in the memory. 
 
 
 )( 
 
 In 
 
[ 104 ] 
 
 In attending a fecond courfe of ledures, a diligent ftudent 
 cannot employ himfelf to more advantage, than by taking 
 notes in the time of ledture; and by writing it out fully, 
 at his leifure, in the evening and next morning, while it is 
 yet frefli in his memory. His notes tliould be very fioort y 
 otherwife the writing will take his attention too much from 
 what is going on. For, even if he could, by Jloort-hand^ 
 take down every word that is faid, he would then be pof- 
 fefled only of a fyftem of Anatomy, at belt full of tauto- 
 logy, and undigefted ; and belides, he would not underlfand 
 it, becaufe he had not had time to fee and examine the 
 objeds : fo that he would lofe the very thing that is aimed 
 at by attending ledures ; which is, to fee and to comprehend 
 things clearly. A man is no more an Anatomiji for poffef- 
 ling a fyftem of Anatomy in manufcript, than he is, for 
 having a fyftem of Anatomy, or a hundred of the beft 
 books upon the fubjed, in prints 
 
 Students, efpecially if they have not been in the habit of 
 taking pains, will think that a diligent attendance alone, when 
 they happen to be confcious of having a good memory, 
 will be enough y or, at leaft, that it will be fufficient to 
 take ftiort notes, for greater fecurity to the memory ; and 
 that compofing and writing out a ledure at length, from 
 fuch noteSi can anfwer no good end ; that it muft be fuch 
 drudgery, as no young man of good natural parts will fub- 
 mit to. Yet it is what I would earncftly recommend to 
 all thofe, who wifti to make any figure in the profeftion. 
 And, to induce them to adopt this part of the plan recom- 
 mended, I will let them know the great benefit they will 
 reap from it. 
 
 Fir ft, 
 
Firft, It fixes attention. For, when we know that we are 
 to give a full and diftind account of what we fee and hear, 
 we find out the heceflity of being very attentive. 
 
 Secondly, It fixes the fubjeft" indelibly on the memory; 
 both by the clofe attention which is given at the time of 
 lefture, and by the ftrong and clear conceptions, which are 
 afterwards raifed in the mind, and deeply imprefied there, 
 by being cloathed in our own words. 
 
 Thirdly, This is the only method of difcovering, what we 
 really do know, and what we do not; therefore, of difcover- 
 ing, what it is that we muft get farther explained to us, or 
 find out by our own induftry. From experience I can fay, 
 that I have often come away from a ledure, thinking that I 
 underllood and retained, the fubfiance of all that was faid 
 or fhewn : and yet, when I tried to put it on paper, which 
 was the tell, I found feveral things, which I und.rflood fo im- 
 perfedlly, as not to be able to give an account of them. 
 
 Fourthly, This method of writing out lectures, gives pof- 
 feffion of a fyfiem of Anatomy, intermixed with innumerable 
 obfervations in phyfic, furgery, and midwifery, which may be 
 confulted through our lives, with much more advantage than 
 any other bgok ; becaufe, it brings to mind things that had 
 been under the examination of our own fenfes ; and, in the 
 order and connexion in which they were examined by 
 us. 
 
 Surely thefe advantages are confiderable enough to balance the 
 labour that mud be bedowed ; and they are perhaps all that are 
 commonly either fought after, or held up to our view. Yet 
 
 there 
 
[ io6 ]' 
 
 t 
 
 there is a benefit arifing from this method of fiudy, more 
 important, perhaps, than any which has been mentioned; 
 and whicii, the interefi: I take, in what will fo much af- 
 fedt your fuccefs, in becoming refpedable members of fociety, 
 obliges me to explain. 
 
 Good language, good compofition, good writings in every 
 fenfe, depends very much upon pradice and habit. All good 
 writers allow this. The befi; of them, generally fpeaking 
 
 confefs, that, though all their valuable works cofi; them a 
 great deal of labour, yet that they found the labour of 
 being an author became much lighter, after fome pradice. 
 
 Now, a fiudent who writes out ledures, is, by that very 
 pradice, acquiring a facility of writing upon fubjeds in his 
 profefiion ; of deferibing all forts of natural and morbid ap- 
 pearances j of reafoning upon thefe ; of putting his thoughts 
 into the moll diftind order, and of expreffing them in the 
 mofi: clear and proper language. 
 
 Befides the honour which arifes from acquiring the charac- 
 ter of being a good writer, we obferve, that in fad, every 
 man in the profefiion, who has been a confiderable writer, 
 has, in confequence, become a confiderable praditioner like- 
 wife ; and the public has, al mofi; always, at leafi:, donejufiice 
 to refpedable writers. 
 
 Many of you, perhaps, are now faying in your own minds, we 
 need not give ourjehes the trouble of writing out ledlures with that 
 view, becaufe we never mean to write books. That is a very 
 young way of thinking. At your age, no man can fay what 
 he will not do j becaufe he cannot know what he may here- 
 after 
 
after wifli to do. And therefore, while we have time and 
 opportunity, let us endeavour to qualify ourfelves for making 
 the beft figure. 
 
 But, fuppofe any of you could be fure that he jfhould 
 never write a book in the way of his profefiion ; may not 
 an occafion offer itfelf, for publillaing fome interefting cafe, 
 or fome improvement, that will be both honourable to him- 
 felf, and beneficial to mankind ? Can any man fay, that he 
 may not be malevolently attacked, iiijurioufly mifreprefented, 
 perhaps ruined in his reputation as a man, or as a pradlitioner, 
 if he does not write a j unification of his condu(fl; which 
 will require the talent of writing for the public ? 
 
 In the lafl place, to fhew you the advantage of writing 
 well, and with facility, you mufi; all know, that in every 
 branch of the profefiion, every pradlitioner mufi; frequently 
 be obliged to write letters upon cafes that come before him j 
 he mufi; fiate them in writing, for the information of thofe 
 who are to be confulted, and for the fatisfadlion of the rela- 
 tions. Now, as you may naturally imagine, I can affare you, 
 that in fadt, not only medical people, but the world in ge- 
 neral, upon reading and confidering a letter, are apt to meafure, 
 and fettle the character of the man, by the character of the 
 writer. Upon a thoufand occafions I have been fo fenfible 
 of what I have been recommendino; to vou, that I could not 
 help taking pains to perfuade you. 
 
 It has been a common pradlice with diligent fiudents to 
 read with care fome good author, before he attends ledtures . 
 or to read, before hand, upon the fubjedt of every ledlure, 
 to prepare himfelf, fo that he may profit more by what he 
 
 P Is 
 
o 
 
 [ io8 ] 
 
 is to fee and hear at the le£lare. But, it is my opinion, 
 that the ftudent wiH profit moft, in the fiudy of Ana- 
 tonty, who is the leaft prepared by previous reading; he 
 will come, with no falfe, no confuled ideas in his head, and 
 therefore will have no rubbifii to be cleared away; he will 
 take liis firfi; ideas from nature herfelf ; they will be more 
 dilcindt than any thing the imagination can fuggeft, from bare 
 verbal defcription ; and the firfi; ideas firike the mind with 
 the mofi deep and lafting imprefiion. But, after a ftudent 
 has laid a proper foundation, by attending a compieat courfe 
 of demonfirations, the more he reads, of the beil and latefi 
 writers efpecially, the more he will improve himfelf. 
 
 I fiiould wifii no ftudent to engage in difledilons, till 
 he had firft attended a complete courfe of demonftra- 
 tions : otherwife, he will be fo much at a iofs in his work, 
 and receive fo little inftrudlion or fatisfadtion, that at beft 
 it will be fo much time almoft thrown away. It may 
 even create difguft to a ftudy, from which he ought to re- 
 ceive pleafure and advantage. But, v/hen once he is prepared 
 for this part of his education, he cannot diftedl too much. 
 Our ledlures are not intended to make men Anatomifts, but 
 only to furnifti them v/ith fuch a knowledge of the fubjedt, 
 as will enable them to profecute the ftudy with fuccefs j, 
 which can be done only by the labour of their own hands, 
 by an examination with their own fenfes, and by refledting 
 and exercifing their own faculties upon their own obferva-i 
 tions. 
 
 In the earlier part of my life, I found fuch advantage 
 in putting my own hand to the knife, and in examining 
 the different parts of the body, at my leifure, and in my 
 
 own 
 
[ 109 ] 
 
 own wayj that I was convinced, I might be of confiderable 
 fervice to the public as a teacher, by opening a fchool for 
 pradical Anatomy, which had not been done before in this 
 great city; and the influence which it has had in 
 
 th is country is evident. There are now among us a hundred 
 men, who with one winter’s preparation for the oflice, might 
 diftinguifli themfelves as profeiTors in any fchool of Anatomy. 
 The conditions of attending the difleding room, were made 
 as eafy to the (Indents, as the circumftances of this town 
 would admit of : and I think it my duty to entreat you 
 to diffed as much as you can, while you have the oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 Befldes attending lectures, and dilTecting dead bodies, there is 
 here an opportunity of learning Anatomy to the bed advantage, 
 by attending the dllTecting-room. One winter’s attention 
 there, will certainly make a diligent dudent a good Anato- 
 mid. He will, in that time, fee the preparatory diflhetion for 
 every lecture ; which will make the lecture itfelf much more 
 intelligible, and fix it deeper in the mind ; he will fee all 
 the principal parts dilTected and demondrated over and over 
 again ; whatever he finds he does not clearly underdand, there 
 is fuch a number of bodies diflected in fucceflion, that he 
 will, at any time, have an opportunity of attending to that 
 particular object, and of getting it explained to him ; he 
 will fee all the operations of furgery performed and explained, 
 again and again ; and he will fee the pradtice of all the 
 arts of making preparations. It is an important piece of 
 education ; and as it is not to be had at other places, I re- 
 commend it earnedly ; efpecially to thofe dudents who are 
 to be in London, one winter only. 
 
 P2 
 
 Some 
 
[ 110 ] 
 
 Some eminent Anatomlfis, have conducted themlelves in 
 I their prai^Heal methods, with fuch cautious relerve, or fecrecy, 
 as if their ambition had been to have it faid, when they 
 were gone out of the world, that no man *was left, who 
 was fit to take their place. It would be fiill more reputable 
 for a teacher, to have it faid, that he had raifed fuch a fpirit 
 for the art, and taught fo openly all he knew, that he 
 left behind him, at leaft a fcore of better Anatomifts than 
 himfelf, 
 
 I mufi; likewife earnefcly recommend it to every ftudent, 
 to make and colledt as many anatomical preparations as he 
 can. He fliould not only have a ficeleton for his own ufe, 
 but he fiiould have feveral fkulls, divided by diflerent fee- 
 lions, to fiiew all the interiors of that part. He fhould have 
 a preparation of all the blood- vefiels in their natural fitua- 
 tion, and two preparations of the trunk of a child, the one 
 prefenting a fore-view, the other a back-view of the whole 
 - vifeera 5 and as many preparations of the organs of fenfe and 
 generation, and of the particular vifeera as he can eafily pro- 
 cure. The advantage which he wfill receive from fuch pre- 
 parations, will not be confined to the few years which are 
 commonly given up to the fludy of Anatomy ; but in the 
 courfe of his bufinefs afterwards, he will have occafion to 
 confult them in many cafes, where an exadt recolledtion or 
 knowledge of the precife fituation of parts may be very ne- 
 cellary to determine the nature of a difeafe, and to diredt the 
 cure. I recommend this to feudents, with earneftnefs, be- 
 caufe I fo frequently find the advantage of it myfelf. Whea 
 confulted about any uncommon cafe, I frequently go to my 
 preparations, and receive much information and fatisfadtion^ 
 by comparing the difeafed parts with the foundo. 
 
 In 
 
[ lit J 
 
 In the fludy of Anatomy, there are fo many occafions of 
 examining minute objedfs, that every fludent ihould provide 
 himfelf with, a magnifying - glafs, and pradife with it 
 upon objeds in bottles, as well as upon thofe that are 
 uncovered j that he may acquire a dexterity, and readinefs, 
 in bringing the objed into a good light, and proper dif- 
 tance. 
 
 In our demonflrations here, large and confpicuous objeds 
 will be Ihewn to the whole company at once. You may 
 obferve that this theatre is particularly well conftruded, both 
 for feeing and hearing ; a ftrong dcy-light is thrown upon 
 the table, and the glafs being ground, that is, made rough 
 upon one furface, the glare of fun-lliine is not admitted: 
 the circular feats are brought as near the table, as eafe in 
 fitting would admit of; and, as they go back, they are a 
 good deal raifed, which is a conliderable advantage both in 
 feeing and hearing; you may obferve another circumdance 
 in this theatre, which has not been fufficiently conlidered 
 in buildings of that kind, viz. the table, where the objed is 
 placed, and by which the demondrator dands, is not in the 
 centre of the circular room, but about half way between the 
 centre and the circumference ; thence the feats make fmaller 
 fegments of larger circles, in proportion as they arc farther 
 removed ; and the fpedators, in proportion as they are at a 
 greater didance,! are more diredly before the objed and fpeaker, 
 which, both in hearing and feeing, makes fome compenfation 
 for the greater didance. 
 
 When fmaller parts of the body are to be demondrated 
 here, or fuch as are obfeure from their dtuation, they will 
 
 be 
 
[ "2 ] 
 
 be fhewn at two or three places fucceflively, that every one 
 prefent may get a diftinil view of them. 
 
 Objefls that are flill more minute, and moft of the prepa- 
 ratmis, mufl: be fent round the company; that every fludent 
 may examine them in his own hand. To prevent confuhon, 
 you will pleafe to obferve, that, in the firft feat, the pre- 
 parations are to go round from right to left; in the fecond 
 bench, from left to right ; and fo alternately, to the fartheft 
 feat of all. To prevent lofs of time, when you give a pre- 
 paration to your neighbour, be fo good as to point out the 
 part, or circimjiance which is then to be examined ; as I 
 fhall do, when it ia firft handed round : and every ftudent 
 will recoiled, that he is to confine his examination to that 
 part only; for, were he to fpeculate upon other things in the 
 preparation, he would not only wander from the fubjed in 
 hand, which would refled upon his underftanding, but he 
 would detain the preparation too long from the reft of the 
 company. 
 
 We exped that the preparations will not be injured, or de- 
 ftroyed, by your examination of them; and therefore, that 
 they will only be looked at : no experiment is to be made, 
 by prefling or bending, to try their ftrength or texture. With 
 all poflible care they are conftantly wearing out, or growing 
 the worfe for ufe. Many of them are the refult of patient 
 labour, and not eafily reftored ; many of them are fuch rari- 
 ties, as are not recoverable, when loft, by any pains that can 
 be taken. 
 
 Among 
 
f ”3 I 
 
 Among a number of ftudents, there will always be fbme 
 young men, v/ho will attend, v/ithout any deiire of getting 
 inftrudiion, but to go through a prefcribed form of education- 
 From fuch nothing is expected, but that they will not dif- 
 turb the reft of the company : that point mufi: be infilled 
 
 upon. 
 
 In a country where liberty difpofes the people to licentiouf- 
 nefs and outrage, and where Anatomiils are not legally fup- 
 plied with dead bodies, particular care fliould be taken, to 
 avoid given offence to the populace, or to the prejudices 
 of our neighbours. Therefore it is to be hoped, that you 
 will be upon your guard ; and, out of doors, fpeak with 
 caution of what may be palling here, efpecially with refpedl 
 to dead bodies. 
 
 Thefe conlideratlons render k necelfary to Ihut our doors 
 againll llrangers, or fuch people, as might chufe to vifit us, 
 from an idle, or even malevolent curiolity. But, if a flu- 
 dent lliould wifli to introduce a friend to any particular 
 ledlure, it will give us pleafure to oblige him j provided he 
 will only take the trouble of prefenting his friend, juft 
 before the lecture begins. The lectures, however, upon the 
 organs of generation, and gravid uterus, arc to be excepted. 
 No vilitor can be introduced when we are upon thefe 
 fubjects. The reafons for fuch exceptions mull be ob- 
 vious. 
 
 The hours wall be from two to four o’clock every day, 
 except Sunday, till the whole be linilhed. 
 
 The 
 
[ 1*4 ] 
 
 The conditions, as ufual, are hung up in a frame, for 
 the infpection of thofe v/ho do not know them. 
 
 Our next meeting fliall be opened with the plan, or or» 
 der of the v/hole courfe> and then we ihall explain the na-« 
 ture of the blood. 
 
 Em© of THi 'LESTnEgge 
 
 % 
 
 • ^ 
 
 . r 
 
 PAPERS 
 
4 
 
 I 
 
 PAPERS 
 
 RELATING TO 
 
 Dr. hunter’s intended PLAN3 
 
 FOR 
 
 Eftablifliing a MUSEUM in LONDON, 
 FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF 
 
 ANATOMY, SURGERY, and PHYSIC. 
 
J 
 
 % 
 
COPY of a MEMORIAL given to the Earl 
 OF Bute, firft Lord of the Treafury, a Ihort 
 Time before he religned that Office, by Dr. 
 Hunter. 
 
 S CARCE any fcience or art requires the protedion of 
 a prince more than Anatomy, as well on account of 
 its great ufe to mankind, as becaufe it is perfecuted by the 
 prejudices, both natural and religious, of the multitude in all 
 nations. 
 
 Its ufefulnefs indeed is generally allowed ^ and yet the de- 
 gree and extent of its benefit is known only to a few. 
 It is the only folid foundation of medicine. It is to the 
 phyfician and furgeon, what geometry is to the aftronomer. 
 It difcovers and afcertains truth ; overturns fuperftition and 
 vulgar error j and checks the enthufiafm of theorifts and of 
 eds in medicine, to whom perhaps more of the human 
 fpecies have fallen a facrifice, than to the fword itfelf, or 
 peftilence. 
 
[ ] 
 
 It is likewife, or at lead might be made of confiderable ufe 
 in fcuipture and painting. 
 
 A great fchool, provided with all the means of improve- 
 ment, is much more neceffary in this, than in any other 
 branch of knov/ledge, becaufe it is lefs capable of being 
 fludied or improved in private. The difficulties, dangers, 
 and expences, that mufl; be incurred, in procuring dead bo- 
 dies, and in providing proper places for diffedion, and the 
 lecrecy with which the bufinefs muft be conduded, are 
 fuch difcouragements to the ftudy of Anatomy, that few 
 men, even of the profeffion, ever attempt the pradical part : 
 and, without pradice, there can be no great ffiare of real 
 and ufeful knowledge. 
 
 There can be no effedual fchool for this art, in any 
 other place than a large city j becaufe it requires a great number 
 and a regular fucceffion of bodies, which cannot be procured 
 in fmaller towns. 
 
 Of the very few who profefs or teach this art in any part 
 of Great-Britain, London excepted,^there are none who can be 
 fupplied with dead bodies for the private ufe of ftudents. They 
 can with difficulty procure only fo many as are abfoiutely 
 neceffary for the public demonftrations of the principal and 
 well known parts of the body. Hence it is that the ffudents 
 never learn the pradical part, and therefore never become Ana- 
 toroifts : and the teachers themfelves can hardly make im- 
 provements, becaufe they cannot have fubjeds for private experi- 
 ments and enquiries. 
 
 Anatomy 
 
t ”9 ] 
 
 Anatomy was not upon a much better footing even in Lon- 
 don, till the year 1746. From that time, not only more 
 compleat courfes have been regularly given in public, but 
 ftudents have always had opportunities of exercifing them- 
 felves in the pradical part, which, before that period, they 
 could not do, in any part of Great-Britain. This has raifed 
 and diffufed a fpirit for the art, which (if we may be al- 
 lowed to fpeak the truth) will be felt, for fome time, by the 
 Tick, and the lame, in all parts of the Britilh empire. And 
 this has been owing to one, who, with very moderate abi- 
 lities, happened to have an uncommon love for the fludy y 
 and who therefore took uncommon pains,, both to inform, 
 himfelf and to inform others. Hence it is that London has 
 for fome years been one of the beft fchools for Anatomy j and 
 hence the London teacher is become poffefl: of a collediort 
 both of preparations and books, inferior perhaps to none in. 
 Europe.. 
 
 He wiihes to teach Anatomy to the bed: advantage of his 
 pupils, while, he enjoys life and health ; and to perpetuate the 
 fpirit for Anatomy, in this country, as far as human in- 
 ftitutions can fecure perpetuity. 
 
 But without fome public and permanent foundation he 
 forefees that Anatomy, and every thing that depends upon, 
 it, muft fink again to its former hate. .It will be taught 
 only by young men, as an introdudion to bufinefs ; the 
 name of ledurer, in nev/s-papers, and in private converfation, 
 never failing to give a man fome degree of credit. But fuch. 
 young teachers will generally be very indifferently qualified, 
 when they begin; and when they have acquired feme abi- 
 lity, from experience, that is,, when they are jufl. become; 
 
 - 
 
 HL 
 
fit for teacliing, they will generally leave it off. They will 
 always find their labour better rewarded (in the vulgar fenfe 
 of reward) by following the pradlice of phyfic or furgery, 
 than by reading ledlures. So it has been, in faftj and thence, 
 though we have had many profefibrs, or teachers, in this 
 great town, we have not had one Winflow, Morgagni, or Albi- 
 nas : nor can it be expefled, that a Briton flaould be able 
 to do, in a few years, what is done by the labour of a 
 long life in other countries : efpecially too, when we con- 
 
 fider that there is no provifion made by our government for 
 fupplying him with fubjefts, and that in other countries this 
 article is amply provided for. 
 
 Above two years ago. Dr. Hunter found himfelf under a 
 neceflity of giving up his ledtures. The fatigue of reading 
 two or three hours every day for fix months, during the 
 winter feafom, when the town is full and bufy, and at fome 
 difiance from his dwelling-houfe j this, with his other en- 
 gagements, which confume a great deal of time, and fre- 
 quently deprive him of natural refi } all this grew to be in- 
 fupportable, and forced him to give notice, that he fiaould 
 read but one courfe more. After that courfe, he was im- 
 portuned fo urgently by his pupils, that he granted them 
 another fiiort one upon the principal parts ; but he read 
 it gratis, thinking, thereby to put an end to all further 
 folicitation. When he took his leave of the fiudents, he 
 received fuch flattering marks of their gratitude, and fuch 
 prefiing calls to continue his ledlures, foi the good of man- 
 kind, that, after very deliberate reflexion, he thought it his 
 duty to do fo, even if he fhould be obliged to drop a part 
 of his more lucrative employments. He conceived that a 
 man may do infinitely more good to the public, by teacoing 
 
[ 121 J 
 
 Bis art, tHan by pradllfing it. The good effefls of the lat- 
 ter miifl: center in the advantage of the few individuals that 
 may be under his cure as patients j but the influence of a 
 teacher extends itfelf to, the whole nation, and. defcends to 
 pofterity. 
 
 With thefe intentions towards mankind, and with a de- 
 lire of gaining what the bell men have ever efleemed the 
 highefl reward, he begs that the Earl of Bute, who knows 
 well the force of fuch motives, would recommend him to the 
 King’s favour, that he may the better execute his plan of 
 giving lectures during his life, and perpetuate a fucceflion o^ 
 public teachers of Anatomy, under the royal protedlion. 
 
 What he at prefent wifhes is this ; to be allowed a proper 
 piece of ground, that he may forthwith lay out fix, or even fe> 
 ven thoufand pounds, in^^eredling a building fit for the purpofe, 
 under any condition that may be agreeable to the King. 
 
 Or, if his Majefty’s known love of the polite arts, and* 
 his benevolence to mankind, Ihould fuggefi: to him a defign 
 of eftablifhing'an academy on a more extenfive plan. Dr. Hunter 
 would be Hill more happy, if what he now propofes for the 
 advancement of one fcience, . might be made a fmall part of 
 an inftitution, worthy of the Britifh nation, and a Britifhs 
 King, 
 
 B L A N: 
 
PLAN of a Theatre, Museum, &c. propofed by 
 Dr. Hunter : With an Account of feveral Parcels 
 of Land in Weftminfter, in his Majefty’s Difpofal, 
 one of which may probably be thought proper 
 for carrying the Doctor’s Scheme into Execu- 
 tion. 
 
 I T is required to find a convenient piece of ground within 
 his Majefliy’s lands in Weftminfter, large enough for a 
 Dwelling-houfe, a Theatre, and Mufeum, for carrying Dr. 
 Hunter’s plan into execution 3 but there being no petition 
 or memorial from the Dodtor, nor any reference to the Sur- 
 veyor General 3 verbal diredtions were given by Mr. Dyfon, 
 to the Peputy Surveyor, referring him to the Dodtor for 
 the quantity of ground and fituation requifte thereto 3 ac- 
 cordingly the Dodtor delivered a fketch of his delign, whereby 
 it appears, that a piece of ground, of about thirty rod, or 
 of the dimenfions of one hundred and twelve feet in front, 
 by feventy-one feet in depth, is wanted for this ufe. 
 
 BAILIWICK OF St. JAMES. 
 
 With regard to his Mijefty’s demifeable land, within the 
 bailiwick of Sl James now laid out in ftreets, and built 
 
 and 
 
C J23 ] 
 
 and improved at the tenant’s expence, by virtue of leafes 
 under the feal of the Court of Exchequer. Thefe are not 
 to be come at without purchafing in the terms in being ; 
 even old buildings in Duke-Street, Bury-Street, King-Street, 
 or other parts of this extenfive bailywick, will fetch eight 
 or ten years purchafe, and in Pall-Mall, Piccadilly, or St, 
 James’s-Street, near as much more. And when bought in at 
 thofe prices, mud; be pulled down, before they can be of 
 any ferVice in the plan propofed. 
 
 SCOTLAND-YARD. 
 
 The ground in both Scotland- Yards, are fo encumbered with 
 the leafes of the Earl of Northumberland, Mr. Ripley, Mr. 
 Edwyn, Mr. Gwyn, Mr. Gibbons, Mr. Killegrew, General 
 Cholmondeley, Mr. Wallace, and others, befides the parts ne- 
 ceffary for his Majefty’s fervice, as the guard-rooms, the office 
 and accommodation of his Majedy’s works, the wood-yard, and 
 other offices, that it does not feem poffible to find one piece 
 of ground there, large enough to anfwer the intended pur- 
 pofe. 
 
 S't. JAMES’sPARK. 
 
 St. James’s Park, and the Green Park, are drait enough 
 for the air and accommodations of their Majedies palaces, 
 unlefs a piece of ground of one hundred and twelve feet by 
 feventy-one feet, might be fpared in that corner of the park, 
 joining to Queen’s-Square, by Petty France; which is the 
 mod remote, and lead frequented of any other part of the 
 
 R parks. 
 
[ 124 ] 
 
 parks. But it is imagined, the Lords Commlffioners of his 
 Majefty’s Treafury, will, with great reafon, objeil to any di- 
 minution of them. 
 
 SAVOY. 
 
 In the Savoy is a large front of old houfes on the fouth 
 fide of the Strand, confiding of about thirty houfes, feven of 
 thefe in the broad part of the Strand, may be taken down, 
 which will give a fpace of one hundred and twenty feet by 
 feventy feet, and will fully anfwer the intended ufe. They 
 are now, and for many years pad; have been, held by the inha- 
 bitants, without any title but podedion. 7 his part may be foon 
 cleared of the prefent incroachers, by order of the Court of Ex- 
 chequer, with the confent of the Chancellor of the Duchy, the 
 old buildings pulled down, and the Dodor’s plan carried in- 
 to execution, without the lead; prejudice to the garrifon there, 
 the prifon, the indrmary, the French, or Prudian churches, 
 or any of the public buildings whatfoever, ftanding within 
 the Savoy. And the reddue of thefe old houfes, may be let 
 to fuch tenants as the Lords of the Treafury diall think 
 dt. 
 
 M E W S, Upper End. 
 
 At the upper end of the Mews, joining to the houfes in 
 Orange-Street, there may be taken one hundred and forty 
 feet in length, and eighty feet in depth ; this piece of ground 
 at prefent, is part in ruins, on other part are flables be- 
 longing to his Royal Highnefs the Duke of York, and alfo 
 
 fomc 
 
[ 125 ] 
 
 fome buildings and ground in podeffion of Captain William 
 Hamilton ; and it is very probable, other accommodations 
 might be found for his Royal Highnefs, and Mr. Hamil- 
 ton, in other parts of the Mews, by advice of the Mafter 
 of the Horfe, under whofe jurifdidtion the premifes are. 
 
 M E W S, Lower End. 
 
 At the lower end of the MewS, fronting the main Rreet 
 at Charing-Crofs, is a range of ground of about one hun- 
 dred and twelve feet in front, and a fui table depth for the 
 ufe propofcd j it is now ufed, part as a fuller’s and porter’s 
 lodge. Other part, as coach-houfes for the carriages of the 
 King, Queen, and Duke of York ; other part is ufed by the 
 Serjeant Farrier, and the reft is in the occupation of the 
 fervants belonging to Colonel Carpenter, and Captain Ha- 
 milton. Thefe buildings, where fome of the carriages of the 
 Royal Family are put up, are mean old dheds, very unfit for 
 the ufe they are put to; and if other and better accommo- 
 dations might be found for thefe ufes, with the advice of 
 the Mailer of the horfe, to whofe jurifdidion the whole 
 Mews belongs : then this parcel might be applied to Doc- 
 tor Hunter’s propofal, being well fituate for that purpofe. 
 It is ne'celTary, the Lords of the Treafury Ihould be informed, 
 that a plan was formerly made for rebuilding the Mews ; 
 which was no farther carried into execution, than building 
 the royal liable in the middle of the Mews. If this defign 
 ftill exills, this plan of Dr. Hunter’s would break in up- 
 on it. 
 
 R 
 
 HYDE- 
 
[ 126 ] 
 
 HYDE-PARK. 
 
 Juft within the gate leading into Hyde-Park, between the 
 faid Gate and the Water Conduit, may be fpared a piece 
 of ground, lying between the Park Road to Kenlington, 
 and the fouth eaft wall of the Park, large enough for Doc- 
 tor Hunter’s plan. The way to it may be along the com- 
 mon road to Kenfington, juft beyond the Turnpike Gate, 
 and the fituation will be airy, if placed over againft jthe end 
 of the road leading to Weftminfter. The houfes of the Lords, 
 Holdernefs, Cholmondeley, and March, &c. are all remote 
 two or three hundred yards from this piece of ground,. 
 
 Surveyor-General’s Office,. 
 
 January i 6 , 176-fj. 
 
 This 
 
r 127 ] 
 
 This was given to the KING by Mr. Hawkins^ 
 
 D r. hunter has given^ia a memorial to Lord 
 Bute, which his Lord£hip recommended to Mr. Gren- 
 ville, fetting forth the ufefulnefs of Anatomy ; and that it 
 is an art which cannot be cultivated in private; and there- 
 fore requires a public fchool with every advantage, and has 
 a peculiar claim to the protedlion of the Crown ; that Lon- 
 don is the only place for fuch a fchool, becaufe a fufficient 
 number of dead bodies cannot be procured in any other 
 part of Great-Britain ; that he had improved and extended 
 the ftudy of Anatomy, and fupported it for many years ; 
 that he forefaw it would be in danger of linking again if 
 there was not fome fixed foundation ; that therefore, though 
 he had once taken a refolution of giving up his lectures,, 
 he not only had refumed them again, but was now come 
 to a refolution of continuing them for his life, and of per- 
 petuating ufcful ledlures of Anatomy in this place* 
 
 This he is determined to do in the beft manner he is 
 able. His heartinefs in the caufe, his very large colledlion 
 ©f preparations and books, his experience, and induftry, can 
 hardly fail of fuccefs : and he thinks, for many reafons, 
 
 this national, and difinterefted fcheme, may be executed with 
 much greater advantage in his life - time, than after his 
 death. 
 
 He 
 
[ 128 ] 
 
 He is ready to lay out fix or even feven thoufand pounds 
 immediately, but cannot expend more, (at leaft now) with- 
 out rilking his peace of mind. 
 
 He flatters himfelf if the King knew of a fcheme fo ufe- 
 ful, and fo perfedly difinterefted, that he would honour it 
 with his name and protedion, and give a convenient piece 
 of ground for the building. 
 
 There are now two old houfes in Scotland-Yard, which 
 the proprietor has begun to repair for the twenty-five re- 
 maining years of his leafe. He afles one thoufand pounds 
 for them. Thefe, with a row of little houfes belonging to 
 the fcullery, would anfwer the purpofe for fituation and fpace ; 
 and if it fliould be wanted, the next houfe (which is old) 
 may be purchafed for fix hundred pounds. 
 
 If any delay be made, that piece of ground will be lofi: j 
 at leaft, the price will rife daily, becaufe the repairs are now 
 ' begun. 
 
 To 
 
[ 129 ] 
 
 To the Right Hon. George G RE N VI LLEr 
 S I R, 
 
 I M O S T fincerely repent having given you fo much trouble 
 about a piece of ground to build upon. The fcheme I 
 propofed was for the public : I offered to lay out feven 
 
 thoufand pounds from my own pocket, and intended giving 
 my mufeum and labour : but, what I did not expedt, I have 
 been obliged to give up a good deal of time, (which is 
 more precious to me than any thing) in waiting, and hitherto 
 to no purpofe. I had a meffage from the Surveyor, above 
 hvc months ago, and when I waited upon him, I told him, 
 that it was unexpected to me ; that from the delay, and 
 apparent negledt, for fome months, I had confidered the 
 propofal as in effedt refufed j but faid, I was flill ready to 
 execute my part. I then expedted fomething was to be 
 
 done immediately, but heard nothing more for about two 
 months, and then Mr. Wheatly fent for me. I complained 
 to him of the delay, but faid I was ftill ready to do my 
 part, if you would pleafe to do yours, and infifted if any 
 thing was to be done, that it might be done immediately. 
 He talked of a few days being neceffary j and I told him^ 
 that a few days would make no dilference at all, but that 
 my piefent fituation would not admit of waiting months^ 
 Yefteiday, nearly three months were elapfed from that time, 
 without my hearing any thing of the matter, and I thought 
 ‘ it 
 
\ [ 130 ]| V / - if " 
 
 it at laft time to ^ wait at the Trekfury, and tp finif^ the 
 bufinefs one way or other. Accordingly, I found that no- 
 thing was done^: and t^ierefore nothing remains ibr me, but 
 to beg pardon for giving fo much trouble, and to beg that 
 I may no longer be ,confidered as bound in honour to ful- 
 fil my part of the propofal. However, as this is the laft 
 time that I will -give' you any trouble about this affair, to 
 cut off all fufpicion of my having made a fham propofal, 
 I will take the liberty to fay, that if any order be given for 
 the ground, before the firf day of February next, I fhall be 
 ready to go on with the plan : otherwife, I am fo circum- 
 
 ftanced that I never ccmf and never will, 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 •> 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 W. H. 
 
 F J N I S. 
 

 
 
 
 
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