Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1196

JOHN ABERNETHY (1764-1831) An enquiry into the probability and rationality of Mr. Hunter's theory of life. Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown 1814 4 [4] 95 pp. 23 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 1193

Abernethy became a surgical apprentice at St. Bartholomew's Hospital at an early age and also studied anatomy and was prosector at the London Hospital. He was elected assistant surgeon at St. Bartholomew's in 1787 and soon became an exceptional and highly acclaimed lecturer and teacher. Abernethy had attended many of John Hunter's (see No. 968 ff.) lectures and had a very high opinion of Hunter's scientific and medical ideas. He mentioned Hunter in many of his works and in this treatise states that "The opinions of Mr. Hunter deserve at least to be respectfully and attentively considered. That he was a man of genius, . . . was a man of uncommon industry, . . . [and] was a man of constant and deep reflection is to me equally apparent" (pp. 18-19). However, Abernethy did observe that "With all his genius, knowledge, and reflection, Mr. Hunter was not, however, a brilliant character amongst us. He had not the happy talent of displaying the stores of his mind, nor of communicating to others the same perception of the importance of his facts and opinions as he himself entertained" (p. 21). Here Abernethy expounds on Hunter's theory of life and the structure and function of the nerves in two lectures delivered to Royal College of Surgeons in 1814.

See Related Record(s): 968

Cited references: Cushing A10 (1818 ed.); Osler 1711; Wellcome II, p. 4