Hunter, WILLIAM

Hunter, WILLIAM, anatomist and obstetrician, an elder brother of John Hunter, was born at Long Calderwood, Lanarkshire, 23d May 1718. Originally educated for the church at Glasgow University, he studied medicine for one session (1740-41) at Edinburgh, and then proceeded to London, where he went through a long training in anatomy at St George's Hospital and elsewhere. In 1747 he was admitted a member of the Corporation of Surgeons, ultimately confining his practice to midwifery. In 1762 Hunter was consulted by Queen Charlotte, and two years later was appointed physician-extraordinary to her majesty. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, he in 1768 became professor of Anatomy to the Royal Academy. In 1770 he removed to Great Windmill Street, where he had built a house, in connection with which were an amphitheatre for lectures, a dissecting-room, and a museum which contained not only his anatomical preparations, but many objects of natural history and a cabinet of very rare medals and coins. Hunter and his brother John were for many years estranged, owing to a dispute as to the priority of certain discoveries; but the quarrel was made up while William was on his death-bed. He died 30th March 1783. His museum was bequeathed to his brother-in-law, Dr Baillie, and after him, with an endowment of £8000, to Glasgow University (q.v.). His most important work, An Anatomical Description of the Human Gravid Uterus and its Contents, did not appear in its complete form till after his death.