the business of the Section over which I have the honour to preside, it
has occurred to me that the time which has been allotted by the
arrangements of the Congress for the purpose may be made most useful to
my hearers if, instead of entering upon a discussion of any abstract
question, I were to ask your attention to a subject upon which I may
possibly be able to give a little information of practical use to
members of the Congress during their visit to this city.
No class of persons can appreciate so fully the importance and value of
museums as those whose occupation it is to study the form and relations
of the various parts of the body, whether of plants, animals, or man.
Our science would make little progress if the objects of our inquiries,
once used for examination or description, were then thrown aside, and
those coming after were denied the opportunity of which we have availed
ourselves. A museum is a register, in a permanent form, of facts,
suitable for examination, verification, and comparison one with another.
Hence, ever since serious attention has been awakened to the interest of
anatomical studies, museums have always been important adjuncts to their
successful prosecution, and the preservation of the various structures
of the body has occupied the attention of very many anatomists, since
the time of the great Italian teachers of the early part of the
seventeenth century, with whom apparently the art commenced.
We have in London, as you are all aware, a museum which stands, in some
respects, in a peculiar position, differing perhaps from any in the
world in its origin, its scope, its method of maintenance, and its
relation to the profession and to the State, in which, for very nearly
twenty years, it has been my privilege to pass my days. It has occurred
to me that a few words in explanation of the history, arrangement, and
contents of that museum might add to the interest and profit of those
visits which I trust every one here will find time to pay to it during
the meeting of the Congress.
The great mind of John Hunter, far in advance of his age--and, it may
be, even of ours--saw at one glance the vast importance of biological
science, and the best means to further its pursuit. To this end he
founded his museum, and directed by his will that it should always be
maintained in its integrity. Wherever civilised men are gathered
together, there are now minds who feel what Hunter felt. The wants of
such minds have created in every country in Europe, and the enlightened
parts of the New World, museums designed to serve in their different
degrees the same functions as our Hunterian collection. Such museums are
evidently national needs; they have already come, though not by any
means to the extent they will in future come, to be looked upon as an
essential portion of the educational machinery of the State. Such
museums are, in almost every capital of Europe, supported directly at
the expense of the State, or are connected with some great educational
institution dependant upon Government for aid. In England alone the need
has been supplied first by a private individual, and secondly by a
private, or semi-private institution, composed of members of a single
profession, with only occasional assistance from the State. In this
country the State (and therefore every individual composing it) is
indebted to John Hunter and the Royal College of Surgeons for relieving
it of the burden which must otherwise have fallen upon it, of providing
that portion of the national education afforded by a biological museum.
The period occupied by John Hunter in the formation of his collection
was all comprised between thirty years--1763, the date of his return
from service with the army in Portugal, and 1793, that of his death. The
labour which he accomplished during this time was something prodigious,
as has often been recounted in various biographies and Hunterian
“orations.” Notwithstanding all that has been written and said, it is
impossible to do justice to his wonderful activity and industry. In
nothing, however, were these qualities so conspicuous as in the
formation of his museum.
Public museums in his time scarcely existed. The British Museum was
little more than a library and gallery of art; the small cabinet of
natural history, reinforced by the old collection of the Royal Society,
scarcely made any show. Anatomical specimens, even bones and teeth, were
looked upon with disfavour. Some that had accidentally found their way
into the collection were, even within the present century, treated as
intruders, and turned out without much ceremony.
Teachers of anatomy were forming their own private collections, but
these were all eclipsed by those of the two Hunters, William and John.
That of the latter especially grew to such an extent as to become in
some sort a national and public institution. He built a large room to
contain it in Castle Street, at the back of his house in Leicester
Square, and when finally arranged there, so much interest was taken in
it that he found it necessary to open it to public inspection at certain
stated times. Still it was maintained entirely at his own cost, and it
is stated that by the time of his death he had spent upwards of £70,000
upon it. Whether this estimate be correct or not, his expenditure on it
must have been very great, as though he had for many years made one of
the largest professional incomes in London, his museum was the sole
property he left behind.
John Hunter was a very miscellaneous collector--minerals, coins,
pictures, ancient coats of mail, weapons of various dates and nations,
and other so-called “articles of _vertu_,” engaged his attention. These,
however, and his furniture and books, had to be sold to meet the most
pressing needs of the family. What would be now called the “biological”
part of his collection was kept intact, during the six years which
elapsed between his death and its purchase by the English Government in
1799. The preservation of the collection during this period is mainly
due to the devotion of William Clift, Hunter’s last assistant, whose
services were retained for this purpose at a very small salary by the
executors, Sir Everard Home and Dr. Matthew Baillie, and whose fidelity
was rewarded by his being appointed the first “Conservator” of the
collection after it came into the possession of the College of Surgeons.
The story of the negotiations with a Government whose interests and
energies were then concentrated upon the great Continental war, and the
answer of the Prime Minister Pitt, when applied to on the subject,
“What! buy preparations! Why, I have not money enough for gunpowder,”
are well known. These difficulties were, however, overcome, and on the
recommendation of a committee of the House of Commons, appointed to
inquire into the subject, the sum agreed to by the executors, viz.,
£15,000, was voted for its purchase on the 13th of June 1799. Then came
the question what was to be done with it. There was at that time no
department of Government under the care of which such a collection could
be placed. The condition of the British Museum has been already alluded
to. The now flourishing and all-absorbing “Department of Science and
Art” had not been invented. There was one body in London which might be
supposed to have some special interest in the maintenance of such a
collection,--the venerable and dignified College of Physicians,--but
that body, it is commonly reported, demurred to accept it on the ground
of want of funds to meet the annual expense of its maintenance. With
reference to this report, Dr. Pitman has been kind enough, in response
to my inquiries, to examine the archives of the College, and finds that
there is no record of any such offer having been made or refused. If any
negotiations were entered into, they must, therefore, have been of a
purely informal nature.
There was still another corporate body--a comparatively obscure one at
that time--the Corporation of Surgeons, which had only separated itself
some fifty-four years before from the old City Company of Barbers and
Surgeons,[12] and although it had thrown off the connection which
restrained its members from assuming the position of cultivators of a
liberal profession, it had as yet done little to raise itself in public
estimation, and had few resources from which to provide for the expenses
of such a collection. Nevertheless, the Court of the Corporation
determined by an unanimous vote on 23rd December 1799 to accept the
museum on the terms proposed by the Government, and almost
simultaneously obtained a new charter, under which it became “The Royal
College of Surgeons,” a body accredited by Government to examine all
persons wishing to practise surgery in the kingdom, and migrated from
its old quarters in the City to the house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, round
which the present establishment has grown up.
Thus John Hunter’s museum and the College of Surgeons of England, though
of entirely independent origin, have had their fortunes inextricably
intermixed, since the former became national property, and the latter
took the title and position it now holds.
The College is still the principal examining body for those who practise
surgery throughout the kingdom. It takes no part directly in
professional education, though it exercises a considerable indirect
influence by the manner of conducting its examinations, and by the
curriculum it requires from candidates. Its revenues are mainly derived
from the fees paid for the diplomas which it grants, which, for the last
ten years, have averaged 383 a year. In former times these fees
considerably exceeded the expenses of the comparatively slight
examination required from candidates, and the surplus, besides defraying
the current expenses of the Museum and Library, was devoted to the
erection of the present buildings, and the acquisition of the freehold
property and invested capital of the College. It says much for the
personal disinterestedness of the eminent members of the surgical
profession who have constituted the Court of Examiners, and who until
very lately were practically the ruling body of the College, that they
fixed their own remuneration at so low a rate as to permit an
expenditure during the present century upon the purposes just indicated,
of a sum which cannot be estimated at less than £400,000. Now, owing to
the more searching and practical character of the examinations, the
expenses of conducting them have augmented to such an extent as to be
scarcely more than covered by the payments of the candidates; and but
for the proceeds of the investments made under different circumstances,
the College would not have the means of carrying on the scientific work
it has undertaken.
The various professorships and lectureships that are attached to the
College have grown up chiefly in consequence of one of the conditions
under which the Hunterian Collection was entrusted to it by
Government--that a course of no less than twenty-four lectures shall be
delivered annually by some member of the College upon comparative
anatomy and other subjects, illustrated by the preparations. Other
lectureships have been founded by private benefactions, but these are of
limited number, or on special subjects, and are intended, not so much
for the education of students, but rather as the means of introducing
new discoveries or ideas to members of the profession and others
interested in scientific pursuits, to all of whom they are freely open
without payment.
Besides the museum, the College has added to its means of benefiting its
own members and the profession generally, a library containing every
important work and periodical upon surgery, medicine, anatomy, and the
collateral sciences.
During the first six years after the collection came into the possession
of the College, it remained in the gallery in Castle Street, which had
been built by Hunter for its reception; but in 1806, the lease of the
premises having expired, it was removed temporarily to a house in
Lincoln’s Inn Fields, adjoining the College of Surgeons, while the
building in which it was destined to be lodged was preparing for its
reception. This building, towards the erection of which, Parliament
contributed the sum of £27,500, was completed and first opened to
visitors in 1813.
The museum was greatly enlarged entirely at the expense of the College
in 1835, and a still more important addition, that of the great Eastern
hall, was completed in 1855. Towards the expense of this, Parliament
contributed a further grant of £15,000, the whole of the rest of the
expenses of the purchase of the site, the building and the annual
maintenance of the museum, having been borne by the College.
In accepting the Hunterian Collection, the College of Surgeons undertook
a heavy responsibility, weightier perhaps than was contemplated at the
time. Although not required by the letter of the contract to do more
than preserve Hunter’s specimens, the College undertook the charge in
the spirit of the founder, and thus made itself responsible for
maintaining such a collection as should meet the requirements of the
ever-expanding and vigorous young science to which it ministers.
Hunter’s collection was held to be the nucleus of a national biological
museum, and its preservation and augmentation by the College has
certainly prevented the formation of such a collection by the State.
Hunter was no specialist, and even after eliminating the non-biological
subjects before alluded to, a very miscellaneous collection remained;
illustrations of life in all its aspects, in health and in disease;
specimens of botany, zoology, palæolontology, anatomy, physiology, and
every branch of pathology; preparations made according to all the
methods then known; stuffed birds, mammals and reptiles, fossils, dried
shells, corals, insects and plants; bones and articulated skeletons;
injected, dried, and varnished vascular preparations; dried preparations
of hollow viscera; mercurial injections, dried and in spirit; vermilion
injections; dissected preparations in spirit of both vegetable and
animal structures, natural and morbid; undissected animals in spirit,
showing external form, or awaiting leisure for examination; calculi and
various animal concretions; even a collection of microscopic objects,
prepared by one of the earliest English histologists, W. Hewson.
It is very difficult to compare the present Hunterian Museum, as it is
still often called, although officially only recognised as the Museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons of England, with any other existing
collection, as its nature and the character of its contents have been
determined by several accidental circumstances rather than by any very
settled purpose. Originally a private collection, embracing a large
variety of objects, it has been carried on and increased upon much the
same plan as that designed by the founder, with modifications only to
suit some of the requirements of advancing knowledge. The only portions
of Hunter’s biological collection which have been actually parted with
are the stuffed birds and beasts, which, with the sanction of the
trustees appointed by Government to see that the College performs its
part of the contract as custodians of the collection, were transferred
to the British Museum, and a considerable number of dried vascular
preparations, which having become useless in consequence of the
deterioration in their condition, resulting from age and decay, have
been replaced by others preserved by better methods. Of the various
departments of which the museum now consists, very few,--in fact only
the collection of illustrations of skin diseases, and the collection of
surgical instruments,--are not the direct continuation of series founded
by John Hunter.
To find an analogous institution to the Museum of our College of
Surgeons, in Paris, for instance, we should have to combine the
collections of Comparative Anatomy and Anthropology at the Jardin des
Plantes, and even a portion of the separate palæontological collection
at that establishment, the collection of human anatomy of the Musée
Orfila, and that of pathological anatomy of the Musée Dupuytren. If
these were all brought together under one roof, and somewhat compressed
and rearranged, we should have something in its nature resembling the
museum of which I am now speaking.
In this combination on one spot, and under one management, of so many
diverse collections, we have a survival of a condition of scientific
knowledge more characteristic certainly of the last century than of the
one in which we live; but in this age of specialities it is well perhaps
to be reminded by such an institution of the essential unity of
biological knowledge, and of the important illustrations which one
branch of it may afford to another, especially when the detailed facts
are to be combined for the purpose of philosophical generalisation.
In visiting the museum, and in the comparison which may be instituted
between it and others of its kind, it is important to recollect this
origin and history, as they will account for many shortcomings. It must
not be forgotten that to its comparative antiquity (for it is certainly
the predecessor and prototype of all the anatomical museums of this
country and of America, and to most of those on the Continent) is due
many faults of construction and arrangement which should not be found in
a building designed with the knowledge and experience of recent years. I
have elsewhere pointed out what I consider the chief of these.[13]
Though the large size of the principal rooms allows of a fine _coup
d’œil_, such a construction does not permit of that separation and
distribution of the different series which is desirable for the purposes
of study. Human anatomy, invertebrate zoology, and pathology, for
instance, come into such near juxtaposition as to produce some confusion
in the minds of strangers, though familiarity with the arrangement soon
disperses the difficulties at first met with in finding the situation
and limits of the particular department required. The narrowness and
unprotected condition of the shelves in the galleries is also a radical
defect now unfortunately irremediable. Furthermore, the indulgence of
those who have the happiness to live elsewhere than in the absolute
centre of a population of four millions of coal-burning people, must be
asked for certain dusky results of such a situation, which no amount of
care and expense can obviate.
I must now ask leave to be your guide to some of the contents of the
museum, as it is at present arranged, and will take the different
branches of biology which are illustrated in it in some kind of order,
beginning with the part which relates to life in a normal condition.
Hunter’s collection and observations were not limited to the animal
kingdom. Wherever any physiological process could be illustrated by
vegetable life, vegetables were pressed into the service, as may be seen
in the physiological gallery, and by the Memoranda on Vegetation, left
by him in MS. and printed by the College in 1860. In his collection were
many portions of various recent plants, and a series, amounting to 184
in number, of fossil woods, fruits, and impressions of stems and leaves.
These specimens are arranged in the large wall-case on the right-hand
side (on going in) of the entrance door of the first or western hall.
With them are some additions made in former years, but since the great
development of the parts of the museum more essential to the general
purposes of the institution, it has been necessary to restrict the
growth of such branches as are more fully and advantageously illustrated
elsewhere.
The zoology of invertebrate animals largely attracted Hunter’s
attention. Many of the treasures collected in the famous voyages of
Captain Cook came into his possession through his friend, Sir Joseph
Banks. He purchased, whenever opportunity offered, as at the sale of Mr.
Ellis’s famous collection of corals and zoophytes. In 1786, at the sale
of the Duchess of Portland’s museum, he bought for fifteen guineas the
fine _Pentacrinus_, now in the museum, of which very few examples had
then been found. Of insects, especially Lepidoptera, he had a large
series. Of fossil invertebrates, as many as 2092 specimens are now
recorded in the catalogue as Hunterian. The series of fossil cephalopods
is remarkably rich.
Such invertebrate animals as are dissected, or illustrate any special
anatomical fact, are arranged in the so-called physiological series in
the gallery, to be described presently, but beyond these there remained
a vast number of specimens only showing external form, which by
selection and arrangement have been lately formed into a special
zoological collection, intended to introduce the student to a general
knowledge of the principal forms of animal life, and to the mode in
which they are grouped. This series, arranged in the floor cases on the
left side of the western museum, includes selected specimens of nearly
all the orders, and in many cases of the families, both of the living
and extinct forms; illustrated both by their hard and imperishable parts
as the “corals” or stony skeletons of the Actinozoa, the shells of
Mollusca, and the tegumentary structures of the Articulata, and by the
softer and more destructible parts of the bodies preserved in spirit.
The various groups are distinctly separated from each other and clearly
named. Students who desire to pursue the study of any of the sections
more deeply than the small selected series of exhibited specimens will
allow, will find the remainder of the specimens mentioned in the
catalogues, arranged in drawers below the cases. The series does not
extend beyond the invertebrata, as the peculiarities of the remaining
classes of the Animal Kingdom are abundantly illustrated in other parts
of the museum.
Although locally far removed, occupying one portion of the upper gallery
of the middle museum, a small but interesting special collection,
illustrating the subject of Helminthology, may be mentioned here. It was
thought that the importance in a medical and social point of view of
those animals which infest the interior of man and the principal
domestic and other animals, justified a more extended exhibition of
their modifications than could be assigned to any other group of animals
of such inferior organisation, and by the aid of the well-known
helminthologist, Dr. Spencer Cobbold, the present collection was
arranged and catalogued in 1866; the materials being mostly already in
the collection, though scattered in other series or hidden in the
storerooms. The collection contains upwards of 200 specimens, and may
still be somewhat extended. The intention is to show every parasitic
animal which, under any circumstances, can affect the human body, and a
selection of the principal types of those that inhabit the lower
animals, especially such species as are associated with man. If
increased beyond these limits, the collection would become interesting
only to the student of detailed systematic zoology, and therefore not a
legitimate object for our museum.