The Hunterian oration for the year 1907 : being the sixty-third Hunterian oration since its foundation : delivered in the theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons : On the objects of Hunter's life and the manner in which he accomplished them / by Henry T. Butlin.

  • Butlin, Henry T. (Henry Trentham), 1845-1912.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Hunterian oration for the year 1907 : being the sixty-third Hunterian oration since its foundation : delivered in the theatre of the Royal College of Surgeons : On the objects of Hunter's life and the manner in which he accomplished them / by Henry T. Butlin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    and actions which go to make up the greatness of one man would so ill befit another, equally great in his own particular sphere, that the same mould could not be applied to both. There is, however, one test which is generally accepted as evidence of a great mind, whether it be the mind of a ruler, of a philosopher, of a poet, or of a man of science. It is that deep things should be discovered to him out of darkness ; in other words, that he should see clearly truths which are still hidden to ordinary mortals. And on this test I venture to class Hunter as one of the greatest men that ever entered our profession. Not for the museum which he made, or for his discoveries in physiology and comparative anatomy, or for the wondrous example of industry and determination which he has bequeathed to us, and certainly not for the improvements which he actually introduced into the practice of surgery, although any of these things would have entitled him to a high place in our esteem, and all of them together would have jDlaced him very high indeed; but because the true relation of surgery to science was revealed to him nearly 100 years before it was so clearly recognised by those who followed liim that they were forced to act upon it. For the first two generations after Hunter's death his memory was held in reverence on account of his wonderful collection, of his contributions to the knowledge of the processes of life in health and in disease, and of the manner in which he him-