[19] O’Brien, dreading dissection by Hunter, had shortly before his death arranged with several of his countrymen that his corpse should be conveyed by them to the sea, and sunk in deep water; but his undertaker, who had entered into a pecuniary compact with the great anatomist, managed that while the escort was drinking at a certain stage on the march seawards, the coffin should be locked up in a barn. There some men he had concealed speedily substituted an equivalent weight of paving-stones for the body, which was at night forwarded to Hunter, and by him taken in his carriage to Earl’s Court, and, to avoid risk of a discovery, immediately after suitable division boiled to obtain the bones. See Tom Taylor, Leicester Square, ch. xiv. (1874); cf. Annual Register, xxvi. 209 (1783).
[20] See C. R. Leslie and Tom Taylor, Life and Times of Sir J. Reynolds, ii. 474 (1865).
[21] Works, i. 265-266.
[22] A transcript of a portion of Hunter’s MSS., made by Clift in 1793 and 1800, was edited by Sir Richard Owen, in two volumes with notes, in 1861, under the title of Essays and Observations in Natural History, Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology and Geology. On the destruction of Hunter’s papers see Clift’s “Appendix” in vol. ii. p. 497, also W. H. Flower, Introd. Lect., pp. 7-9 (1870).
[23] In his Treatise on the Blood, p. 288, Hunter observes: “We find it a common principle in the animal machine, that every part increases in some degree according to the action required. Thus we find ... vessels become larger in proportion to the necessity of supply, as for instance, in the gravid uterus; the external carotids in the stag, also, when his horns are growing, are much larger than at any other time.”
[24] See Sir R. Owen, “John Hunter and Vivisection,” Brit. Med. Journ. (February 22, 1879, p. 284). In the fourth of his operations for popliteal aneurism, Hunter for the first time did not include the vein in the ligature. His patient lived for fifty years afterwards. The results on the artery of this operation are to be seen in specimen 3472A (Path. Ser.) in the Hunterian Museum.
[25] Home, Trans. of Soc. for Impr. of Med. and Chirurg. Knowl. i. 147 (1793). Excess of heat in the injured limb was noticed also in Hunter’s second case on the day after the operation; and in his fourth case it reached 4°-5° on the first day, and continued during a fortnight.
[26] The record of Hunter’s death in the St James Chronicle for October 15-17, 1793, p. 4, col. 4, makes no allusion to the immediate cause of Hunter’s death, but gives the following statement: “John Hunter.—This eminent Surgeon and valuable man was suddenly taken ill, yesterday, in the Council-room of St George’s Hospital. After receiving the assistance which could be afforded by two Physicians and a Surgeon, he was removed in a close chair to his house, in Leicester Fields, where he expired about two o’clock.” Examination of the heart revealed disease involving the pericardium, endocardium and arteries, the coronary arteries in particular showing ossific change.
[27] Hunt. Orat., 1827, p. 5.
[28] See p. 266 of his malicious so-called Life of John Hunter (1794).