Lecture notes taken in the anatomy lectures of William Hunter, 1718-1783, anatomist, delivered in 1752

Scope and Content

Notes of lectures by William Hunter on anatomy, delivered in 1752. Probably transcriptions from shorthand notes taken by Charles White of Manchester, 1752

Administrative / Biographical History

These volumes of lecture notes were made in 1752  by an anonymous student who attended the anatomical lectures of the anatomist William Hunter.

William Hunter was born in Long Calderwood, Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1718  Intended for the church, he attended the University of Glasgow from 1731-1736  where he was exposed to the philosophical teachings of Francis Hutcheson which turned him against the rigid dogmas of Presbyterian theology. An acquaintance with the physician William Cullen (1710-1790) disposed him to the medical profession, and he studied with Cullen for three years. Eager to widen his experience, he went to London in 1741  where he worked as an assistant to William Smellie MD (1697-1763) and then from 1741-1742  with James Douglas, both of whom fostered his interest in obstetrics and gynaecology. Between 1741-1749 he was tutor to William George Douglas.

His career prospered; already by 1743  he had communicated the first of several papers to the Royal Society - On the Structure and Diseases of Articulating Cartilage , and in 1750  he was awarded an MD by the University of Glasgow. In 1749  he was appointed as a surgeon at Middlesex Hospital, England, before transferring for a brief time to the British Lying-in Hospital in 1749  .

From the first he had particularly interested himself in obstetrics and in 1762  was called to attend Queen Charlotte on the birth of her first child. Two years later, he was appointed as Physician Extraordinary to Queen Charlotte and rapidly became the most sought after physician in London.

His research, embodied in his Anatomical Description of the Human Gravid Uterus (1774) and his practical example, including the establishment of specialist training for both physicians and midwives, did much to establish obstetrics as a respectable branch of medicine for the first time, though he took a perverse pleasure in continuing to describe himself as a despised 'man-midwife'. However, he continued to lecture on surgical and anatomical topics also, with great success, being described as'admirably clear in exposition, and very attractive by reason of his stores of apposite anecdotes'.

In private life he was a man of wide learning and artistic sensibilities and devoted many years to assembling a magnificent collection of books and manuscripts, coins, antiquities and works of art; these, with his working collection of anatomical and other specimens, were bequeathed to the University of Glasgow on his death in 1783  .

Source: After Carol Primrose, St Mungo's Bairns: Some notable Glasgow students down the centuries, ( Glasgow: Glasgow University Library , 1990 )

Arrangement

The arrangement of this material reflects the original order in which it was received

Access Information

Open

Acquisition Information

Purchase : August 1974 : ACCN 4277

Other Finding Aids

Item level descriptions are available via the department's online manuscripts catalogue available at http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/  searching by the call number MS Gen 720 and MS Gen 721

Alternative Form Available

No known copies

Archivist's Note

Compiled by David Powell, Hub Project Archivist, 2 April 2003

No alterations made to date

Conditions Governing Use

Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the Keeper of Special Collections

Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use & condition of documents

Appraisal Information

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 247 procedures

Custodial History

Unknown

Accruals

None expected

Related Material

GB 247 MS Hunter H: Papers of William Hunter

Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department holds a number of examples of notes taken in the lectures of William Hunter of which descriptions are available on the Archives Hub, details are given below:

GB 247 MS Gen 702 Lecture notes taken in the anatomy lectures of William Hunter, 1718-1783, anatomist, delivered in 1781

GB 247 MS Gen 769-772 Lecture notes taken in the anatomy and chirurgical lectures of William Hunter, 1718-1783, anatomist, delivered in 1768

GB 247 MS Gen 790 Lecture notes taken in the anatomy and chirurgical lectures of William Hunter, 1718-1783, anatomist, delivered c1770

GB 247 MS Gen 1630 Lecture notes on the Gravid Uterus, taken in the lectures of William Hunter, 1718-1783, anatomist, delivered c1774

Item level descriptions are available via the department's online manuscripts catalogue available at http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/  searching by the relevant MS Gen call number

Material in other repositories: no material associated by provenance

Bibliography

Facsimiles of these lecture notes were published in Hunter's lectures of anatomy (  Amsterdam,  Elsevier ,  1972 )

Corporate Names