Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 968

JOHN HUNTER (1728-1793) The natural history of the human teeth. Printed for J. Johnson 1771 [8] 128 pp., 16 plates each accompanied by a leaf of descriptive letterpress. 26 cm.

John Hunter, even more remarkable than his remarkable brother, William (see No. 942 ff.), was an anatomist and surgeon, practicing in London. He lacked the education and culture of his brother, yet his tireless energy helped him to overcome whatever obstacles his educational and cultural lacks may have provided. "Hunter remains one of the great all-round biologists like Haller and Johannes Müller, and with Paré and Lister, one of the three greatest surgeons of all time. . . . Hunter found surgery a mechanical art and left it an experimental science" (Fielding H. Garrison, An introduction to the history of medicine. 4th ed. Philadelphia, 1929. p. 137). One of Hunter's most important works was this treatise on the teeth. It was the first scientific study of the teeth and is basic to all modern dentistry.

See Related Record(s): 942

Cited references: Cushing H508; Garrison-Morton 3675; Russell 432; Waller 10650; Wellcome III, p. 317

Gift of John Martin, M.D.