William Hunter

1718-1783

Scottish Anatomist, Obstetrician, Surgeon and Physician

Along with his teacher and fellow Lanarkshire Scotsman William Smellie (1697-1763), William Hunter was chiefly responsible for elevating obstetrics to the status of a rule-governed empirical science. Before his time it was generally the disrespected practice of ill-trained and superstitious midwives. He also made important contributions to surgical anatomy, forensic medicine, and cardiology.

Hunter was the seventh of 10 children of John Hunter, a farmer, and Agnes Paul Hunter. After attending grammar school in East Kilbride, Scotland, he entered the University of Glasgow in 1731. He made friends with William Cullen (1710-1790) and became his medical apprentice in 1736. On Cullen's advice, Hunter began anatomical studies under Alexander Monro primus (1697-1767) at the University of Edinburgh in 1739.

Hunter went to London to study obstetrics under Smellie in 1740. The following year he became the protégé of the distinguished obstetrician and anatomist James Douglas. He lived with Douglas, tutored his son William George, and became engaged to his daughter Jane Martha, but she died in 1744 before they could be married. Douglas enabled Hunter to study surgery at St. George's Hospital. On his deathbed in 1742, Douglas asked his wife to ensure that Hunter would have means to study anatomy on the Continent. Hunter spent much of 1743 and 1744 in Paris and Leiden.

In 1746 Hunter began offering the anatomical lectures that were the main source of his income for the rest of his life. They were an immediate success. His reputation as a surgeon and obstetrician also grew quickly and steadily. In 1750 the University of Glasgow awarded him an M.D. In 1762 he became the personal obstetrician and physician to Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. In 1768 he founded the Anatomical Theatre and Museum, Great Windmill Street, London, where he and his assistants taught anatomy. Known as the Hunterian Medical School after his death, it remained open until 1839.

His articles in the leading medical periodical of its time, Medical Observations and Inquiries by a Society of Physicians in London, contained some of the earliest accurate descriptions of aneurysms, retroverted uterus, osteomalacia (softening of the bones), ovarian cysts, and several other conditions. His posthumously published article in the same journal, "On the Uncertainty of the Signs of Murder in the Case of Bastard Children" (1784), was the first important British contribution toward the medical jurisprudence of infanticide.

Hunter's masterpiece is Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata (The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus Exhibited in Figures) (1774). This book is among the best anatomical atlases ever produced, not only for its accuracy and detail, but also for its aesthetic qualities. It stands about 27 in (68 cm) high, and each of its 34 life-size copperplate engravings is magnificently executed. Hunter's text for this atlas was edited by Matthew Baillie (1761-1823) and published in 1794 as An Anatomical Description of the Human Gravid Uterus and its Contents.

In the 1750s, having become wealthy through his lectures and his practice, Hunter began collecting art, coins, anatomical and biological specimens, minerals, rare books, manuscripts, scientific instruments, and other valuable objects. His taste and connoisseurship were impeccable. He willed the entire collection and funds for its maintenance to the University of Glasgow, which in 1807 made the collection public with the opening of the Hunterian Museum, the first institution of its kind in Scotland.

Hunter was a nervous, paranoid, and eventually bitter man. He made enemies easily and picked many public quarrels. He was jealous of his younger brother John's greater success as a surgeon. He never married, did not socialize much, and generally spent his life at work. His dedication to the scientific study of anatomy bordered on monomania. Yet he was devoted to his nephew, Matthew Baillie, and the generous terms of his will contributed much toward establishing Baillie's medical career.

ERIC V.D. LUFT