HUNTER, JOHN. 1728-1793.


Autograph Letter Signed ("John Hunter"), to "Dear Lysons," asking him to meet at the back house early Friday, 1 p, 8vo, with printed identification slip affixed to lower margin, mounted to a stub on cardstock guard.A FURTIVE NOTE FROM FAMED SURGEON JOHN HUNTER, likely to physician Daniel Lysons, "Woolf will be able to assist after Thursday. Can you meet him in the back house on Friday any time in the morning, the sooner the better.... Hunter "is considered one of the most influential surgeons of all time. He extended the horizons of surgery, medicine, and science. Because of Hunter surgery came to be recognized as a branch of scientific medicine firmly backed by physiology and pathology" (Rutkow, Surgery: An Illustrated History, (1993), p 273). In 1783, Hunter purchased houses at 12 Leicester Square in affluent London, and the adjoining lot in the back, at 13 Castle Street (now Charing Cross Road). The "back house" at 13 Castle Street contained rooms for Hunter's pupils as well as his dissection rooms. See Paget, John Hunter, Man of Science and Surgeon, (London, 1897). Accompanied by an engraved portrait by George Adcock (1838).