with great skill and judgment numerous operations, which were at that time new in the art of surgery; but whatever may have been the multiplicity of his professional engagements, his mind was still devoted to effecting improvements in medical education, and with this view, assisted by his friend the celebrated Dr Fordyce, he instituted a medical society, called the Lyceum Bledicum Londinense, the meetings of which were held in his own lecture-rooms, and which acquired no inconsiderable reputation, both from the numbers and character of its members. Institutions of this kind have been of eminent importance in fostering and eliciting talents that have done honour to medical science J and this under the patronage it enjoyed did not fail to flourish.
In the year 1786, in consequence of the death of Mr Middleton, Mr Hunter was appointed deputy surgeon general to the army ; shortly after which he published his work on the venereal disease, and another entitled "Observations on certain parts of the Animal Economy;" both which works rank high in the estimation of the profession. Sir Everard Home mentions the curious fact, that he chose to have his works printed and published in his own house, but "finding," he adds, "this measure to bear hard upon the booksellers in a way which had not been explained, and which was not intended, the second editions were sold by Mr Johnson in St Paul's Church-yard, and Mr Nicoll, Pall Mall." In the spring of this year he had another very severe illness, which confined him to bed, and rendered him incapable of any kind of business. "In this state," says his biographer, " I was obliged to take upon myself the charge of his patients, as well as of his other affairs; and these were so extensive, that my residence in his house became absolutely necessary. His recovery was very slow, and his health received so severe a shock, that he was never afterwards entirely free from complaint or capable of his usual bodily exertion. After his recovery from this illness, he was subjected to affections of the heart upon every occasion which agitated his mind. In this infirm state he was unable to attend patients upon sudden calls in the night, or to perform operations without assistance; and for these years I continued to live with him until within a year of his death, and then took a house within a few doors, which, in no respect detached me from his pursuits, or prevented me from taking a part in his private practice. The uncertainty of the continuance of life under this affection; the mental agitation, and frequent depression with which it is almost invariably attended, render the victims of such generally anxious and unhappy; the canker worm is felt to be preying within the living frame, and there is no hope of restoration to permanent health. But notwithstanding all this, his energies remained unabated, and he still toiled with his wonted alacrity in the pursuit of knowledge. In the year 1787, he submitted to the Royal Society a paper giving an account of the experiment he had made to determine the effect of ex- tirpating one ovarium, on the number of the young ; also another communication, in which he proves the wolf, jackall, and dog to be of the same species; and another on the anatomy of the whale tribe. In return for these labours, having been twelve years a fellow, he received the gold Copleyan medal. Distinctions of this kind, although abstractly no stimulus to men who are actuated by higher motives in pursuit of knowledge, when conferred on men of such eminent abilities, not only do honour to the individual to whom they are presented, but to the institution by which they are awarded; and certainly, on reviewing the labours of John Hunter, there was perhaps no man who ever lived, better entitled to this honour. In the July of this year, he was chosen a member of the American Philosophical Society; and the same year, on account of his con- tinued ill health, he applied to the governors of St George's hospital to allow him an assistant surgeon, to which request they readily acceded; and Sir
