Table of Biography
John Hunter was a British surgeon who championed the application of the scientific method in medicine. John Hunter was one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. Also, he was a teacher and collaborator with Edward Jenner, the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine.
Early Life
John Hunter was born on 13th February 1728 in Scotland. The personality was the youngest of their ten children. Three of his siblings, one of whom had also been named John died of illness before he was born. His elder brother’s name is William Hunter he was an anatomist. In his early days, he showed little talent and helped his brother-in-law as a cabinet maker.
Death
John Hunter was 65 years old at the time of his demise on 26 October 1793. His death was due to a heart attack brought on by an argument at St George’s Hospital concerning the admission of students.
Career
John Hunter learned anatomy by assisting his brother William with dissections in William’s anatomy school in Central London. In the early 1760s, he served as an Army surgeon, worked with the dentist James Spence conducting tooth transplants, and later he set up his anatomy school in London.
Likewise, John made up a collection of living animals whose skeletons and other organs he prepared as anatomical specimens, demonstrating the anatomy of humans and other vertebrates including more than 3,000 animals.
His brother became an admired teacher of anatomy and John worked as his assistant in dissections and started practical classes of his own. His brother and his brother’s former tutor William Smellie were responsible for the deaths of many women those corpses were used for their studies on pregnancy. Also, Hunter is alleged to have been connected to these deaths.
However, the people who studied life in Georgian London agreed that the number of gravid women who died in London was not particularly high for that locality and time. In 1774, John provided case histories for at least four of the subjects.
Caption: A British Surgeon, John (Source: artuk.org)
Likewise, he studied under William Cheselden at Chelsea Hospital and Percival Pott at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He also studied with a famous anatomist and wax modeler, Marie Marguerite Biron. And, John became an assistant surgeon at St. George’s Hospital in 1756 and a surgeon in 1968.
Similarly, in 1760, he was commissioned as an Army surgeon and was a staff surgeon on an expedition to the French island of Belle Ile. Later in 1763, he left the Army and spent more than four years working in partnership with a London Dentist, James Spence.
More about his career
In 1764, he started his anatomy school in London and began private surgical practice. Likewise, he bought a house near the Earl’s Court district in London in 1765. His house had large grounds and he collected animals including zebra, Asiatic buffaloes mountain goats, and jackals. He used to boil down the skeletons of some of these animals as part of research on animal anatomy.
In 1767, John was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Likewise, the personality was considered the leading authority on venereal diseases and believed that syphilis and gonorrhea were caused by a single pathogen. At that time, he championed the treatment of gonorrhea and syphilis with mercury and cauterization.
Similarly, he was appointed as a surgeon at St. George’s Hospital in 1768. After that, John became a member of the Company of Surgeons. and, he was appointed as a surgeon to King George III in 1776.
Personal life
John Hunter married poet Anne Home, a daughter of Robert Boyne Home and sister of Sir Everard Home. They tied the knot in 1771 and had four children. Their two children died before the age of five.
One of his children is buried in the churchyard in Kirkheaton, Northumberland, and the gravestone is Frade II listed. And, their fourth child, Agnes Hunter married General Sir James Cambell of Inverneill.
John Hunter – Body Measurements
There are no verified details related to John Hunter’s body measurements like his height, weight, chest-waist-hip size, shoe size, etc.
Social Media
John Hunter does not have a profile on any special media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. While he was alive, these social media platforms were not invented.
John Hunter – Net Worth 2024
Talking about his net worth and earnings, his net worth was between $1 million-$5 million. His major source of income was his surgeon career.