The complete works of John Hunter, F.R.S (Volume 2).

  • Hunter, John, 1728-1793.
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The complete works of John Hunter, F.R.S (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    13/482
    other hand, be conceded to his immediate follower, Dr. Blake, that if he received from Hunter the hints from which his own discoveries were deduced, he has so clearly elucidated what in the former was obscure, so judiciously supplied what was deficient, and so satis- factorily harmonized what appeared to be incompatible or incon- sistent, that he well deserves the praise of having contributed more to the right understanding of the subject than any other writer that has ever treated on it either before or since; and his inaugural dissertation (the work, it must be remembered, of a pupil,) contains opinions and statements on the structure, the formation, the growth, and the relations of these organs, which most subsequent writers have done well to copy, and all experimental physiologists have only been able to confirm. The late Joseph Fox, with far less of original talent than his precursor, brought to the practice of his profession a mind well prepared for a diligent, correct, and rational discharge of its duties. If, therefore, his intellectual character were such as precluded him from distinguishing himself in the field of original investigation and discovery, the sober reflective habits of his mind, joined to a regular professional education, enabled him to obtain from an extensive practice such a knowledge of the diseases of these organs, and such well-grounded principles their treatment, as to render his work a very valuable acquisition, not to the professed dentist only, but particularly to the general practitioner; a class of the profession to which his labours were especially devoted, as he lectured on this subject for many years in the theatre of Guy's Hospital. It is, then, to the writers just mentioned that the profession is prin- cipally indebted for the knowledge it at present possesses of the anatomy, physiology, and diseases of the teeth. It would be useless here to notice the numerous books which have from time to time appeared, chiefly derived, as they are, from these sources, the merits of which may generally be stated to be in the inverse ratio of their originality. Equally unnecessary is it to enter into an elaborate consideration of the hypotheses which are entertained on the nature of these organs by some of the most distinguished French physiologists. The object of the author in the annotations affixed to the following Treatise has been rather to avail himself of such means as lay before him, to elucidate the text where it is obscure, to correct its errors where subsequent investigations have proved errors to exist, and to add such information on subjects imperfectly treated on as the observations and experience of others, or his own,