The Hunterian

Following the example of the great anatomy schools in Italy, John Hunter opened his anatomy academy in London, where besides teaching anatomy/physiology and surgery, he had a teaching museum that held preserved specimens. These specimens were used to help medical students identify diseases that they would likely encounter as they practiced. In addition to having preserved human remains, Hunter had animal remains and a collection of paintings. The remains show a wide variety of illnesses from syphilis to lung cancer in various stages. By carefully preserving remains, Hunter allowed students to make more accurate diagnoses of patients. One way to legitimize his venture and to professionalize surgery was to obtain body parts from prominent officials or other well-known medical curiosities. For example, Hunter was given the Archbishop of Canterbury’s rectum and allowed to purchase Charles Byrne’s, a 7’ 7” man, body and displayed it in his collection. I thought it was interesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury would have donated his body to science and allowed for it to be dissected especially when other religions, including Catholicism were adamantly against autopsies or dissection. Why would these differences have existed especially when France and Italy, both traditionally Catholic countries, were the leaders in anatomy for a long period of time?

Another interesting aspect of the Hunterian was the way things were arranged. There was a huge emphasis on correctly classifying diseases and putting everything into categories. For example, the sexually transmitted diseases, such as syphilis, were together. Near the syphilis specimens was another product of sexual intercourse: fetuses that had died during various points in gestation. This classification of diseases and development shows Linnaeus’ influence on the way science was conducted and marked a change in classification to the system that we still use today. Classification allowed people to assert control over nature through reasoning and logic and marks the beginning of modern biology.

I thought it was incredible that surgeons would have spent so much time collecting specimens for future generations to study, especially when there was little surgeons could do for patients. Most surgeries performed were relatively superficial because there were no anesthetics and sterile conditions in surgery was a foreign idea. Keeping diseased body parts in preservatives was valuable and even if surgeons could not do much to help their patients the specimens remained important tools for teaching so when anesthecis and hygienic practices were introduced, surgery could operate on areas that were formerly inconceivable, though surgeons knew what was wrong with the patient. This increased surgeons’ status and importance in a new chapter in medicine from palliative to preventative.