IF you enter the room which we used to know as Room 111, which was severely injured during the war but has now been restored and is the nucleus of the rapidly-growing new pathological museum, you will see at the end the famous statue of John Hunter, by Henry Weekes, R.A., and on the plinth is the simple notice: "John Hunter, born 14th of February, 1728; died 16th of October, 1793".
What manner of man was this whose fame has continued for 200 years and whose spirit dominates the whole formation and development of our College ?
As a student and as a young surgeon this question often presented itself to me, for I knew of no discovery in science or surgery which was directly due to the work of John Hunter, and yet he ranks, and always has and will rank, with the great discoverers in our profession, such as Harvey, Pasteur, Lister, Simpson, and, more recently, Banting, Fleming, and Florey.
With an increasing association with the College and the Museum, I have gradually acquired knowledge of his work, but it is only since you, sir, and the members of the Council did me the very great honour of electing me Hunterian Orator that my work on the subject has made me realize and appreciate that Hunter's work is the whole foundation of scientific surgery and of modern surgery as I would have it be; and yet I have become apprehensive that with the crowding of the medical curriculum and the growth of specialism surgery of the future may depart from this sound and scientific basis.
Many of you, unless you have made a special study of Hunter's methods, must have had some doubts as to what was the nature of his work and why this College should always have laid so much stress upon its importance, and should even to-day consider his Museum, in spite of the damage it has suffered in the war, as the very keystone of our existence.
Much light has been thrown upon the subject by the valuable contributions of many recent orators -contributions which have been so searching and so eloquent that I have had a feeling of great diffidence in following them.
Of these I might especially mention that of Lord Moynihan in 1927, who showed under what disadvantages Hunter worked in that he had no microscope or previous knowledge of chemistry, physics, or physiology to help him, and gave a list of *Hunterian Oration delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons, Feb. 14, 1947.