Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Annals of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons 1994; 12:13-6, with kind permission from Dr E. William Witherspoon and the Editor, Dr J. K. Harcourt.

The Hunteryears (1728-1793)

By Dr E. William Witherspoon,

Fellow of the Hunterian Society Brook Cottage, 4 Manor Road, Oakley near Aylesbury, Bucks HP189QR England

MB, ChB, DTM&H, RCP&RCS, FFPM, FRSH

The engraving by Williani Sharpe dated 1788 was taken from the original painting by Sir Joshua Keynolds which hangs in the Council Kooni of the Koyal College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. A preliminary portrait depicting John Hunter in exactly the same contemplative pose but with a straggly red beard was rejected by his wife Anne.This version survives in the Court Kooni of the Society ofApothecaries ( l ) , Blackfriars.

The “Prince of Anatomical Dissection” is depicted seated at his desk surrounded by several of his specimens and books. These, as well as the chair, still exist in the Hunterian Museum. O n e of the many treatises he wrote was Diseases of the Teeth (2) and this together with his tooth grafting experiments and perception of periodontal disease led to the advancement of dentistry and increased interest in transplanting teeth. His practical experience of dental surgery came from his friend, William Spence with whom he stayed after returning from the SevenYears’ War (1763) during which time he saw active service in Portugal as an army surgeon.

In the background can be yeen the lower limbs of a skeleton. This was Charles Byrne (1 76 1-83) (3) who suffered from acro- megaly. About eight feet tall, he was exhibited at freak shows and, fearful of falling into the hands of anatomists after his death, arranged to be buried at sea in a lead-lined coffin. Several local surgeons plotted to salvage his coffin but, in the event, Hunter outwitted them by bribing the undertaker. Legend (4) has it that he collected the body himself, propping the corpse beside him in his carriage, and visited several patients before returning to his house in Earls Court where the body was dismembered and rendered in a copper vat.

Hunter was born in 1728 at East Kilbride, Scotland (5), and it is opportune to recall that in that same year James Cook was born at Moreton-in-Cleveland near Whitby, the son of a migrant Scottish labourer who learned to read at the age of 75 in order to follow his son’s exploits (6).

Twenty years later (1 748) Cook was an apprentice deck hand on a collier barge, the Three Brothers, bound for the port of London. Meanwhile, Hunter was sailing down the Clyde to join

J O H N H U N T E R London.Publithed I”.’Jan: 1788,by W”Sharp,NPB,Charles Street,Mid& Hofpital:

B.B.Euans,corner of the Old Jewry Cheapfide & W Skelton.NP23 Hay Market

Engraving depicting John Hunter (dated 1788) taken by William Sharpe fiom the original painting hy SirJoshua Reynolds which hangs in the Council Room ?f the Royal College .f Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,

London.

his brother, William, in the capital. William Hunter (1718-83) (7) was already well established with his own Anatomy School in Great Windmill Street, having studied in France and in Scotland under Professor Alexander Munro (1697-1 767) who had published the Anatomy o fHuman Bones in 1726. In an age when it was considered good practice to cauterize the tip of the ear to relieve toothache on the premise of reciprocal

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innervation, Munro noted that it “seldom succeeded twice in the same person” (8), and considered that it was terror on seeing the red hot instrument that achieved any result. His son lived near Hunter in Jermyn Street and was a colleague at St George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner.They had a prolonged acrimonious dispute over who had discovered the lymphatic system. A descendant of Munro became Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives (1861) and, another, ANZAC Commander at the Dardanelles (1915).

John Hunter had arrived in a London that was in a state of social and religious turbulence although far calmer politically than had been the case two years earlier when Bonnie Prince Charlie (9) had led a Jacobite rebellion to within 120 miles of the city gate but then retreated to defeat at Culloden (1746) the last major battle on the British mainland.

The city environment was far from pleasant. Degrading poverty and crime were prevalent as were malnutrition and in- fectious diseases. Alcoholism was widespread in an atmosphere of debauchery and dissipation (10). Every fourth house was a grog shop, the new drink from Holland (gin) being cheaper and more easily obtainable than clean drinking water. The streets were polluted with sewage and there were no pavements or sealed roads. Highwaymen roamed the outskirts. Areas like Belgravia were foetid swamps. Only 40 per cent of the populace lived beyond 15 years of age. Nevertheless, this was the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment and whilst Hogarth produced his caricature Gin-lane, Canaletto painted his views of the Thames, a commercial waterway growing in importance.

A further twenty years (1768) and Captain James Cook was circumnavigating the north and south islands of New Zealand and deciding to return westwards around the east coast of New Holland, finding anchorage for the Endeavour in Botany Bay (1 770) (1 1). Sir Joseph Banks who accompanied the expedition brought back a variety of plant specimens, some of which he gave to the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries who cultivated medicinal plants in their Chelsea Physic gardens. These gardens still flourish, close to the Royal Chelsea Hospital for retired and invalid soldiers - a suggestion by Nell Gwynn to King Charles 11. A latter day eccentric Medical Director (Dr Monsey) at this hospital would extract the Chelsea pensioners’ teeth by tying a length of catgut to the offending tooth, then threading the other end through a hole drilled in a bullet which he fired from his pistol.

In London the prisons had become so overcrowded that, as a temporary expediency, old naval hulks on the Thames were brought into use. There were more than 60 capital offences, so that SO per cent of those convicted were committed to trans- portation to America, Nova Scotia, or Africa. However, the North American colonies became “independent”, aided in part by Louis XVI, King of France, who supplied a French fleet and expeditionary force (1780) (12).This loss of a colony evoked by only a third of the settlers, combined with riots in the hulks and fear of contagious disease spreading from the gaols, forced the Pitt Government to act on Sir Joseph Banks’ earlier proposal to

found a colony in Botany Bay as an alternative venue for those sentenced to transportation. Among those so condemned were men like William Bland, a naval surgeon, who killed another ship’s officer in a duel and surgeon’s mate,William Redfern, who had mutineered over conditions. Both were ultimately pardoned (13) and became the founding fathers of the Australian medical fraternity.

During this decade the “Brother Surgeons” fame had spread. William became Royal Accoucheur and Physician as well as a distinguished demonstrator of anatomy. John became Surgeon Extraordinary to King George I11 and was responsible for raising the status of surgeons as well as laying the foundations of modern surgery and surgical pathology (14). In addition to his contributions to dentistry, he was associated with the foundation of a LondonVeterinary College and among his students was Edward Jenner who became famous for vaccination.

Human cadavers were desperately needed for dissection, operating experience and tuition (during the winter months), for the increasing numbers of aspiring surgeons, trainee physicians and apothecaries. Until 1745, the Barber-Surgeons controlled public dissections, allowing only six a year, usually on executed criminals, and private dissection was forbidden. Never- theless, bodies were illegally acquired by grave robbing and although, subsequently, the Company of Surgeons did not impose such strict limitations, the Hunter brothers were of necessity involved in such dealings along with fellow anatomists of the time.

Grave robbers stole fresh corpses from newly dug graves which were shallow in those days or from paupers’ graves which were left “open” until they were full. Such “resurrectionists” were careful to leave the shroud behind since this was “property” and taking it was a felony punishable by imprisonment (lS), whereas the dead body had no rights and stealing it was only a misdenieanour punishable with a fine.The body snatchers sold the adult bodies for two guineas and children for six shillings a foot, often two in a bag.

Bodies were legally acquired from the public hangings of condemned criminals, murderers and highwaymen. Most execu- tions took place at Tyburn (Marble Arch) and were considered social occasions, sections of the used rope being sold as souvenirs. Sir Joshua Reynolds with his friends, I lr Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, would join the throng at similar events near Newgate Jail (Old Bailey). Judge Jeffries liked to watch the hangings of those he had sentenced at Execution Wharf from the balcony of a nearby tavern, the Prospect of Whitby which still serves real ale. The adjacent wharf steps led down to a post to which pirates were chained and drowned by the .oncoming tide. Captain Cook stayed nearby and possibly used the tavern while waiting for his ship to be refurbished across the Thames at Deptford.

Twenty years on (1788) at a time when the reluctant John Hunter was being persuaded to have his portrait painted, the First Fleet had found safe harbour in Sydney Cove (16), Captain William Bligh faced mutiny aboard HMS Bounty (17) and

AUSTRALIAN ENDODONTIC NEWSLETTERVOLUME 23 No. 1 APRIL 1997 41

Charles Edward Stuart (the Young Pretender) died of alcoholic poisoning in Rome.

Five years later (1793), John Hunter suffered one of his anginal attacks during a Board Room dispute and died as he was leaving St George’s Hospital. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Seven days earlier in Paris, the Reign of Terror had intensified under Robespierre (18) and the Queen of France was guillotined in the Place de la Concorde. Awaiting her fate alone at the Conciergerie (19) she had been reading the Travels of Captain Cook.

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Elizabeth Allen, Curator, Hunterian

Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, for help in researching material; Mary P. Paul, Medical Archivist,Wellcome Foundation; and Peggy Duffin for assistance in preparing the manuscript.

References 1.

2. 3.

4.

5.

Copeman WS. C. Apothecaries. New York: Pergammon, 1980:37. Allen E. Hunterian Museum. London: Knapp, 1974:lO. Catalogue Hunterian Society. St Albans: Campfields, 1990:iv. Bushell I? London’s secret history. London: Constable, 1983:70. Wartell C. Trans Hunterian SOC 1989; XLVII:74.

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Dane R., et al. True tales. Darlington: Nordales, 1979:26. Morgan K. Oxford illustrated history of Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984:397. Wright St Clair R.E. Doctors Munro. London: Wellcome, 1964:46. Bold A. Scotland’s kings and queens. Andover: Pitkin, 1990:24.

Johnson N. Eighteenth century London. London: HMSO, 1991 :27. Clark M. A short history of Australia. Sydney: Mentor, 1963:18. K e e p J. History of warfare. London: Hutchinson, 1993:348. Anomymous. 3rd AMA Congress. Introducing Australia. Sydney: Ure Smith, 1968:3. Cohen B. John Hunter Pathologist. JR SOC Med 1993;

Jackson B.N. Trans Hunterian SOC 1991; XLVIX:83. Keneally T , et al. Australia, Dreamtime. London: BBC, 1987: 15. Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates. London: Ward Lock, 1881:115. Cassell’s illustrated history of England. London: Cassell, 1938:Vol 4:424. Shearer M. More a woman. London Daily Telegraph 1993, Oct 16:XXIX (Col 7).

86:587-92.

The First Permanent Molars The mouth of every child should be thoroughly examined by a competent dentist before the sixth year molars make their

appearance, and as soon as the crowns of these teeth are laid bare they should be washed and made perfectly clean - aseptic - and the surface covered with a good cement, so that all imperfections may be thoroughly sealed.With this treatment, and the teeth carefully watched, they will sometimes be good teeth for fifty years. If the cement washes out, renew it as often as necessary, until they have passed the period of susceptibility, and are immune to caries. J. Y Crawford.

From The Australian Journal of Dentistry, 1899; 2:375

It seems fissure sealing is not as recent an idea as I thought! The Editor

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