Life
Hunter was born at Long Calderwood, now part of East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, Scotland the youngest of ten children. The date of his birth is uncertain. Robert Chamber's "Book of Days" (1868) gives an alternative birth date of 14 July, and Hunter is recorded as always celebrating his birthday on the 14th rather than the 13 July shown in the parish register of the town of his birth. Family papers cite his birthday as being variously on the 7th and the 9th February. Three of Hunter's siblings (one of which had also been named John) had died of illness before John Hunter was born. An elder brother was William Hunter, the anatomist. As a youth, John showed little talent, and helped his brother-in-law as a cabinet-maker.
In 1771 he married Anne Home, daughter of Robert Boyne Home and sister of Sir Everard Home. They had four children, two of whom died before the age of 5 and one of whom, Agnes (their fourth child), married General Sir James Campbell of Inverneill. In 1791, when Joseph Haydn was visiting London for a series of concerts, Hunter offered to perform an operation for the removal of a large nasal polyp which was troubling the great Austrian composer. According to one account, "Haydn, on his visit to London in 1791, folksong arrangements, including The Ash Grove, set to words by Mrs Hunter. Haydn had designs on Mrs Hunter. Her husband ... had designs on Haydn’s famous nasal polyp. Both were refused."
His death in 1793 followed a heart attack during an argument at St George's Hospital over the admission of students.
Read more about this topic: John Hunter (surgeon)
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