HUNTER, Medical Commentaries, Second Edition, 1777
MEDICAL COMMENTARIES. PART I. CONTAINING A PLAIN AND DIRECT ANSWER TO PROFESSOR MONRO jun. INTERSPERSED WITH REMARKS on the STRUCTURE, FUNCTIONS, and DISEASES OF SEVERAL PARTS of the HUMAN BODY. By WILLIAM HUNTER M. D. The SECOND EDITION. LONDON Printed for S. BAKER and G. LEIGH, York-street; T. CADELL, Strand; D. WILSON and G. NICOLL, Strand; and J. MURRAY, Fleet-street. MDCCLXXVII.
Original half brown leather with marbled paper over boards. Red labels and early library sticker on spine. Leather scuffed. Corners bumped and chipped. Hinges cracked. Infirmary medical library bookplate on front paste down. Four plates on the relevant surgical anatomy of hernia, in a section by John Hunter (also a famous surgeon). Margins well retained. Two title pages. Mild foxing. Clean, bright, and tight throughout. Verso of last page is an advertisement for the first edition of Hunter’s now-famous anatomy of the gravid uterus.
Ffep, title, (3), vi-vii, 113, title, iii-v, 6-29, ad, rfep. 4 plates.
John Hunter defends his priority in research regarding lymphatics over and against the claims of Alexander Monro Secundus.
William Hunter, 1718 – 1783, apprenticed under William Cullen, and attended the anatomy lectures of Alexander Monro Primus in Edinburgh (1739). The next year he studied midwifery in London under William Smellie. He later attended lectures in Paris. Thereafter, he obtained his MD from Glasgow University and practiced surgery and midwifery in London. He first dissected the cadaver of a woman who died during full term pregnancy in 1750. His ensuing publication on the matter is a classic in medicine.
Alexander Monro Secundus, 1733-1817, was the second in a dynasty of three successive Alexander Monros at Edinburgh University. He studied under his father in anatomy in 1744. He studied under William Hunter in London, and under Johann Meckel in Berlin. He was the most influential anatomy professor of the 18th century. He lectured from 1 – 3 pm daily during the 6 month winter session. The controversy between Monro and his former teacher over lymphatics was both in print and in person. Hunter had taught the matter first, but Monro published first. As it is, Friedrich Hoffman and Francis Glisson had beaten them both to the topic.
John Hunter 1728-1793, was the youngest brother of William Hunter. He worked as an anatomical demonstrator in his older brother’s school as early as 1750. He studied surgery under Cheselden. He was sought after for his expertise in postmortem examinations. From 1761-1763 he was a military surgeon. His treatise on human teeth is a classic in medicine.
(Dictionary of Medical Biography).
