Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 942

WILLIAM HUNTER (1718-1783) Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata. . . . The anatomy of the human gravid uterus exhibited in figures. Printed by John Baskerville 1774 40 pp., 34 plates. 63.5 cm.

William Hunter, born in Scotland, was a London physician and obstetrician whose principal interest was in anatomy. Hunter served a three-year apprenticeship under William Cullen and received in 1750 his medical degree from the University of Glasgow. He was also a pupil of and then assistant to William Smellie (see No. 825) and later an assistant and dissector for James Douglas (see No. 783), the anatomist and obstetrician who discovered Douglas' pouch--the vesicouterine pouch. Upon becoming professor of anatomy of the Society of Navy Surgeons in 1746, Hunter initiated a series of lectures on anatomy, surgery, and obstetrics which became quite popular and well-attended. In 1768, he constructed an anatomical theater and museum on Great Windmill Street where many of the foremost surgeons and anatomists of the day, including his brother John (see No. 968 ff.), were trained. Hunter remained a bachelor and lived at his School of Anatomy where he practiced, taught, and developed his extensive collection of anatomical specimens. This work, said to be "one of the finest anatomical atlases ever to be produced" (Garrison-Morton 6157), contains life-sized figures which not only are anatomically accurate but are themselves works of art. Hunter spent more than twenty-five years preparing this atlas, employed artists to prepare the engravings at enormous expense to himself, and entrusted the printing of the work to John Baskerville, the greatest English printer of the eighteenth century. This monumental work is, indeed, one of the great publications of world medical literature as well as a classic of book production.

See Related Record(s): 825 783 968

Cited references: Choulant-Frank, pp. 296-297; Cushing H522; Garrison-Morton 6157; Osler 3026; Russell 452; Waller 5004; Wellcome III, p. 319

Gift of John Martin, M.D.