altogether the most characteristic, and is certainly the most eminently
Hunterian. It was specially the creation of the founder, is still
arranged almost exactly as he left it, and, notwithstanding the very
numerous additions, still contains a larger proportion of Hunterian
specimens than any other department. This is the collection which is
called _Physiological_, because the specimens in it are classified
mainly according to their supposed function. Physiology, as we know it
now, is scarcely a subject which can be illustrated in a museum. The
processes and actions which take place in the living body are not to be
shown in bottles, but the organs, through the medium of which
physiological processes are performed, can be, and it is these which are
illustrated in this collection. It is more truly a collection of
comparative anatomy, or morphology as we should now call it. It shows
the variations in form which the different organs undergo either in
different species, or in the same species under different conditions, as
age and sex or season. Many of these modifications clearly have relation
to function, as we see in the difference of form and relative size of
the compartments of the stomach of the young ruminant, which is
nourished by milk, and the adult which feeds on grass, the periodic
variations in the size of the testis in birds, etc. But in a vast number
more we can see no special adaptation to purpose, but merely variation,
apparently for variety’s sake. Look, for instance, at all the
differences of the form of the liver throughout the mammalian series,
which, as far as we know, have no relation to its action as a secreting
gland. Though of little interest to the physiologist, modifications of
this kind are of the highest importance to the morphologist. They throw
light upon one of the great biological problems, classification, which,
when rightly interpreted, means nothing more or less than a statement of
the order in which living beings have been evolved one from another.
From such variations of form most precious indications of the
relationship of one animal to another can be obtained, and the less
these variations are related to adaptation to some particular function,
the better they can be relied on for this purpose. But Hunter’s ideas
were far different. He tried to bring together analogous parts according
to their uses--organs of progressive motion adapted for flying--eyes
modified for seeing in water--eyes modified for seeing in air, and so
forth. Practically, such a system could not be logically carried out.
Too many modifications of form were found to occur, to which no special
modification of function could be assigned, a compromise had to be made,
and in the large number of cases the organs had to be arranged according
to the affinities of the animals to which they belonged--brains of
fishes, brains of birds, brains of mammals, etc. As the collection
continues to advance, the classification according to homology is
gradually superseding that according to analogy, with which it began.
This collection at present contains 6982 specimens mounted in bottles,
of which 3745, or more than one-half, are Hunterian. It may be
convenient to know that these are distinguished by the figures upon them
which refer to the catalogue being painted in black. The specimens added
since Hunter’s time are lettered in red. The greater number of the
former must be fully a century old, and being still in as perfect
preservation as when first put up, afford a fair guarantee of the
absolute permanence, with proper care, of specimens preserved in
alcohol. The skill displayed in dissecting, injecting, and mounting the
majority of these preparations has scarcely ever been surpassed in
modern times, and this collection alone, if it were all that Hunter had
left, would be a grand monument to his industry and zeal for anatomical
knowledge; as is its valuable and instructive descriptive catalogue,
published in five volumes, and completed in the year 1840, a lasting
evidence of the same qualities on the part of Mr. Clift’s eminent
successor in the conservatorship of the museum, Professor Owen.
Many points in comparative anatomy can be illustrated quite as
efficiently, and more economically, by dried preparations, which require
neither spirit nor bottles to preserve them in. Though we have not
attained in this country the art of making such preparations in the
elegant and instructive manner pursued in several of the museums in
Italy, notably in that of Pisa, and though nearly all the original
Hunterian dried preparations have perished long ago, or become
partially useless, there will still be found some worthy of attention
in the rail cases round the galleries which contain the spirit
preparation. While speaking of the contents of these cases I would
specially call attention to the series showing the modifications of the
small bones of the ear, throughout the mammalian class, arranged a few
years ago by Mr. Alban Doran, one of the assistants in the museum, which
is probably not surpassed in extent or variety and method of arrangement
anywhere else.
The Histological Collection is contained in a separate small room
adjoining the physiological galleries, and consists of upwards of 12,000
specimens, illustrating the minute structure of the tissues of plants
and animals, mostly prepared under the direction of Professor Quekett,
the third conservator of the museum, who devoted the greater part of his
life to this work. Since his death in 1861, it has been rearranged and
kept in order; but the additions have not been numerous, chiefly in
consequence of the practical difficulties in exhibiting such a
collection to visitors to a public museum.
Although the anatomy of man naturally takes its place among that of
other species in the Physiological series, the preparations illustrating
it were chiefly confined to viscera--the details of regional anatomy,
and of the arrangement and distribution of muscles, vessels, and nerves,
not finding a natural place in the scheme upon which that department of
the museum was organised. It was, however, a few years ago thought
desirable that human anatomy, in consideration of its great importance
to our profession, should be exhibited on a much more extended scale
than it had been hitherto, and that a ready demonstration should be
afforded by means of permanent preparations of the structure of all
parts of the human frame. To those who have already learnt their
anatomy, and who wish to refresh their memory, or verify a fact about
which some passing doubt may be felt, or those who are precluded by
circumstances from visiting the dissecting-room, the preparations of
this series must prove of great value. The series of dissections already
made with this end, commenced by a former able assistant in the museum,
Dr. J. Bell Pettigrew, and carried on to their present perfection by Mr.
W. Pearson, are arranged on shelves over the floor cases on the western
side of the western museum, contiguous to the series of human osteology,
to which they form the natural sequel.
No portions of the structure of vertebrate animals can be preserved with
greater facility than the bones and teeth. Moreover, the skeleton being
the framework around which the rest of the body is built up, gives, more
than any other system, an outline of the general organisation of the
whole animal, and it has this special importance, that a large number of
species--all those in fact which are not at present existing upon the
earth--can be known to us by little beyond the form of the bones.
Osteology has, therefore, always had many votaries, as a special branch
of study, and it is one which finds much favour in the eyes of curators
of museums, from the satisfactory manner in which it can be illustrated
by specimens. Hunter’s osteological collection was considerable, quite
in advance of any other in this country. The two small whales
(_Balænoptera rostrata_ and _Hyperoodon rostratus_) which formed part of
it were almost the only skeletons of animals of their order which
existed in any museum at the time of his death. This fact alone shows
the marvellous change that has taken place within less than a century in
the facilities for the study of comparative anatomy. How great the
contrast to what may now be seen here in the College of Surgeons, in the
British Museum, in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Dublin, in a score or
more of museums on the European continent, in America, even in Australia
and New Zealand! Richly supplied osteologial collections have sprung up
in every considerable centre of scientific culture over the world; but
as ours was one of the first in point of time, we may also claim for it
a high position in point of completeness. Others, such as that at the
British Museum, the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and the famous Leiden
collection, may be larger, but this is because the College Museum has
been designedly limited rather to selected illustrations of all the most
important modifications of structure, than to numerous examples of
closely allied species, which can only be looked for in a purely
zoological museum. When important forms have become extinct, their
characters are shown by their fossilised remains, which, though at
present most illogically arranged in a distinct room apart from their
existing allies, will soon be incorporated in the general osteological
series, where alone they can find a reasonable position in an anatomical
museum.
The value of a collection is not to be estimated only by the number of
specimens it contains, nor by even their rarity or judicious selection,
but also by the condition of the specimens, and the facility by which
they may be made available for study and reference. On this head we
claim to be somewhat in advance of other museums, on account of the
improvements which have been made in late years in preparing and
articulating entire skeletons, and in displaying portions of the bony
framework in an instructive manner. Formerly all the bones were rigidly
fixed together, so that their articular surfaces, if not actually
destroyed, were completely concealed; and no bone could possibly be
removed and separately examined. The aim of a series of changes in the
method of mounting skeletons introduced here, and now adopted more or
less completely in many other museums (the details of which were carried
out with great skill by our late able articulator, Mr. James Flower) has
been to obviate all these difficulties, and to make each bone, as far as
possible, independent of all the rest, whilst preserving the general
aspect and form of the entire skeleton.
Another improvement in the osteological series introduced within the
last twenty years has been the formation of a special collection
designed to show the principal modifications of each individual element
of the skeleton throughout the vertebrate classes, by placing the
homologous bones of a number of different animals in juxtaposition. For
convenience of comparison, the specimens of this series are all placed
in corresponding positions, mounted on separate stands, and to each is
attached a label bearing the name of the bone and the animal to which it
belongs. This series is especially instructive to the students of
elementary osteology, and forms an introduction to the general series.
As in other departments of the museum, the more nearly man is approached
in structure, the more complete do the illustrations of anatomical
modification become, and, as might be expected, the osteology of man is
far more thoroughly shown than that of any other species. The specimens
of human osteology (of which a revised catalogue, enumerating 1306
specimens, was published two years ago) begin by illustrations of the
development of the bones; these are followed by the normal skeleton,
exhibited under various aspects, then by individual variations, among
which may be mentioned one of the most remarkable objects in the museum,
the skeleton of the celebrated Irish giant, O’Brian, who died in London
in 1783, and about the preservation of whose remains so many legends are
told in the biographies of John Hunter. Finally, the special osteology
of man or illustrations of the osteological characters of the various
races of mankind. In this important subject Hunter was a long way in
advance of most of his contemporaries, as the origin of his collection
dates almost, if not quite, as far back as that of the founder of
physical anthropology, the celebrated Blumenbach. The series has been
greatly augmented of late years, and completely rearranged, and the
splendid addition made to it last year by the purchase of the great
private collection of the late Dr. Barnard Davis has brought it up in
point of completeness to truly national importance.
As forming a transition from the department of normal anatomy and
physiology to that of pathology, may next be mentioned the teratological
series, or collection of congenital malformations of man and the lower
animals, which necessarily forms part of every general biological
museum. This difficult, mysterious, and, as far as the light it throws
upon the workings of the laws of nature, still unsatisfactory subject,
had considerable attraction for Hunter, and many of the specimens in the
series form part of his museum. It has been steadily, though not very
rapidly increasing ever since, and had the advantage, a few years ago,
of being thoroughly revised, rearranged, and catalogued by Mr. B. T.
Lowne. It is arranged in the upper gallery of the middle museum.
The pathological series is the section of the museum to the study of
which, in the eyes of Hunter and his successors, all the others form an
introduction. It occupies the whole of the two galleries and part of the
ground-floor of the western hall. As the museum of the College differs
from those attached to the various medical schools, in having no
hospital or _post-mortem_ room in connection with it, from which to draw
the supplies for completing this collection, it has been increased by
the acquisition from time to time, when opportunity afforded, of various
private collections, as those of Mr. Heaviside in 1829, Mr. Langstaff in
1835, Mr. Howship and Mr. Taunton in 1841, Mr. Liston in 1842, and Sir
Astley Cooper in 1843, obtained by purchase; and the collections of Sir
William Blizard in 1811, Sir Stephen Love Hamminck in 1851, and Dr.
Peacock in 1876, presented to the College. Contributions of recent
specimens are also constantly received from numerous individual donors,
the acquisitions from this source having greatly increased of late
years. The total number of specimens now in the catalogue amounts to
5148, of which 1672 are Hunterian. As in the physiological galleries,
the latter are distinguished by their numbers being painted in black.
The descriptive catalogue of this series, written by Sir James Paget,
and published in five quarto volumes between the years 1846 and 1849, is
one of the best-known and most valuable of all the publications of the
College, and has always been looked upon as a model upon which other
pathological catalogues should be formed. The additions made to the
collection since that time have been so numerous that the necessity of a
new catalogue has long been felt. Under these circumstances, it is a
matter of great congratulation to all who are interested in the welfare
of this valuable collection, that the author of the original catalogue
has undertaken, with the co-operation of Dr. Goodhart and Mr. Doran, to
make a new one, in which the old descriptions will be revised, the new
specimens incorporated in their appropriate places, and such changes
introduced into the general arrangement as the advance of pathological
knowledge and greater experience of the requirements of the museum
appear to necessitate. This great work, especially arduous for one so
much engaged in professional avocations as Sir James Paget, is now far
advanced. The prospect of its early completion will doubtless compensate
the members of the Congress who will make an inspection of this part of
the collection for the transitional and somewhat disarranged condition
in which they will find it on their present visit.
As adjuncts to the general pathological series are certain special
collections, which have separate catalogues devoted to them. One, which
will be examined with interest by those devoting themselves to aural
pathology, is the series of preparations illustrative of diseases of the
ear, formed by the late Mr. Joseph Toynbee, which came into the
possession of the College at his death in 1866. It is a large and
probably unique collection of 824 specimens, illustrating all the known
morbid conditions of the organ of hearing, such as could only have been
brought together by one specially engaged for a considerable number of
years in investigating this branch of surgery, and the value of which is
greatly enhanced by a complete descriptive catalogue, published during
Mr. Toynbee’s lifetime. This series is arranged in part of the rail
cases of the lower pathological gallery in the western museum. The
remainder of the same cases are devoted to the collection of urinary
calculi and other concretions, salivary, biliary, and intestinal, both
from man and various animals, probably the most complete and best
arranged in the world. The careful chemical analysis and description of
the whole of these specimens has been the work of Mr. Thomas Taylor.
In a corresponding position in the upper gallery of the same museum is
the Dermatological collection, consisting of an extensive series of
beautifully executed models, of actual specimens, casts and drawings
illustrating the various affections of the skin. This collection was
commenced in the year 1870, the whole of the specimens in it, the cases
which contain them, and the catalogue describing them having been
presented to the College by Mr. Erasmus Wilson, at that time Professor
of Dermatology in the College.
Lastly, must be mentioned a collection--for the reception of which a
separate room, approached from the end of the eastern museum, was
devoted, in 1870--of surgical instruments and appliances, which, though
small at present, contains many instruments curious for their antiquity,
or interesting for their associations, and doubtless, now that a
convenient and appropriate locality has been established for their
reception and preservation, will be gradually augmented by additions of
a similar nature. It is mainly to the interest taken in the subject
which it illustrates by the late Sir William Fergusson that the
establishment of this collection is due.
Such is a general outline of the history and contents of the museum
which, for eighty years, the College of Surgeons has maintained for the
benefit not only of its own members, but for that of the profession at
large, and indeed of all who take any interest in biological science,
whether the young student preparing for his examination, or the advanced
worker who has here found materials for many an important contribution
by which the boundaries of knowledge have been materially enlarged. To
all such it is freely open without any fee or charge. Even the written
or personal introduction of members, still nominally required, is never
asked for on the four open days from any intelligent or interested
visitor; and on the one day of the week in which it is closed for
cleaning, facilities are always given to those who are desirous of
making special studies, and to the increasing number of lady students,
whether artistic, scholastic, or medical. Artists continually resort to
the museum, to find opportunities of studying the anatomy of man and
animals, which no other place in London affords; and of late years it
has been the means of a still wider diffusion of knowledge, by the
visits which have been organised on summer Saturday afternoons by
various associations of artisans, to whom a popular demonstration of
some part of its contents is usually given on each occasion by the
conservator.
If the knowledge of organic nature is of any value to man, and this is a
proposition which I am sure all who attend this Congress will admit, as
on such knowledge the whole superstructure of their profession is built,
there can be no question but that such an institution as I have here
sketched out must be one of pure and simple benefit. Its maintenance has
been a worthy object upon which the College has spent its care and its
money, and whatever may be the changes which impending legislation may
effect in the organisation of the profession, we may all hope that the
great work begun by John Hunter, and carried on by those who, under the
guidance and support of the Council of the College, have followed him
in the care of the collection, may not be impaired or destroyed. Whether
the whole of the charges of maintaining such a museum in all its parts
on a continually extending scale should be the duty of one institution,
like the College of Surgeons, or even of one profession, may be a
question for future consideration; but, in the meantime, how easily
could its preservation and extension be rendered entirely independent of
all the chances and changes of medical education and legislation, or
even of Government assistance and interference! When we see the immense
sums voluntarily provided every year in this country by donation and
bequest; when we see, and see with pleasure and gratitude, through the
length and breadth of the land, cathedrals, churches, chapels, colleges,
schools, hospitals, and asylums founded, endowed, enlarged, and
restored,--may we not hope that an old and tried institution like ours
will not be so entirely neglected as it has hitherto been by members of
our profession in search of some means for the disposal of any surplus
wealth they may possess. Few objects can be so surely productive of
good, so little liable to abuse at any future time, as the preservation,
augmentation, and maintenance of a museum, in which the facts of the
beautiful and wonderful world around us are displayed for the
instruction of mankind.[14]
GENERAL BIOLOGY
VIII
INTRODUCTORY LECTURE TO THE COURSE OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY[15]
Mr. President and Gentlemen--I am sure that the feeling that is
uppermost in the minds of all here assembled is regret at the cause
which has placed me before you on this occasion. Of the able and
distinguished men who have filled this chair since it was instituted in
the commencement of the century, not one was more able or more
distinguished than its last occupant, either as an original investigator
in the branch of science he adorns or as a facile expositor of its
truths. The loss of Professor Huxley’s services to this Institution is
indeed to be deplored. The only consolation is that what is loss to us
may be gain to others. He but leaves us that he may concentrate his
time, his energies, his genius, elsewhere.
Feeling as deeply as I do the responsibilities of the Hunterian
professorship, and my incapacity to discharge its duties in a manner
worthy of its dignity and importance, I should certainly have declined
to undertake it when it was proposed to me, if it had not been for the
thought that these lectures are emphatically _museum_ lectures, intended
to illustrate and explain the treasures of our noble collection, and
that from these has been derived almost all I know of the great subject
that I am now called upon to teach. I shall, therefore, perhaps more
than another might, speak to you directly from those specimens. I am, as
it were, _their_ mouthpiece. Having lovingly dwelt and worked among them
so long, I felt that I could hardly refuse to tell you something of what
they are always telling me--to endeavour to put their silent eloquence
in some sort of articulate language. If I can only succeed in awakening
an interest in them, and lead any one who may chance to come into this
theatre to continue his studies in the museum, where he will meet with
far greater return for his time and his attention than here, the
delivery of these lectures will not have been altogether in vain.
I have just mentioned the museum. It is impossible to do so without
recalling the circumstance that this day is the one on which we have
been accustomed to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the
illustrious founder of that collection.