and labours for nearly thirty years, and consists of thirty-four folio plates, representing the parts in their natural size, most accurately and beautifully engraved from dissections made by himself and his brother John, and illustrative of the most important subjects in midwifery. He had commenced a work describing these plates, but his death occurred before it was completed; and it was not till 1794 that the work appeared, edited by his nephew, Dr. Matthew Baillie. Dr. Hunter was peculiarly tenacious upon the subject of the priority of his claims to anatomical discoveries; and in addition to his disagreeable controversies with Dr. Monro and others, he unfortunately entered into a dispute with his brother John, relative to some claims made by the latter to the discovery of the structure of the placenta. This dispute produced an estrangement between the two brothers, which continued during the rest of Dr. Hunter's life, a partial reconciliation only taking place on his deathbed. Dr. Hunter was a man of extensive knowledge; he was a clear and elegant writer, an accomplished gentleman, an excellent orator, and a most able and lucid lecturer. As far as regards midwifery, he was perhaps the most scientific man that had ever previously practised that branch of the profession. Obstetricy owes as much to him, as surgery does to John. He left, in addition to his published works, several MSS. behind him. Amongst these was the commencement of a work on biliary and urinary concretions; two introductory lectures, one of which was occupied with a history of anatomy from the earliest period, down to the time when he wrote; and a work intended to show the immediate connection of anatomy with the practice of physic and surgery. Each introduced scientific principles of physiology into what before their time had been little more than mechanical arts. Hunter was well formed, but of slender make, and was rather below the middle stature. He was frugal and simple in his habits; and having determined when he commenced practice to acquire an independency, he succeeded in amassing a fortune of £70,000. This he in great part devoted to establishing a school of anatomy in London, and forming a museum. In 1765 he offered to expend £7000 to build a house fit to receive his extensive collection of preparations, and to endow a professorship in perpetuity, provided government would grant him a piece of ground to build upon. This offer was declined, when he bought a piece of ground himself in Great Windmill Street, upon which he erected a private house, a museum, and dissecting-room. He then added to the collection he had already formed a library of choice and valuable books; a cabinet of rare medals, which cost £20,000; and a large collection of objects of natural history, which he purchased of the executors of Dr. Fothergill. Dr. Hunter was never married. At his death he bequeathed an annuity of £100 to his sister, Mrs. Baillie, during her life, and the sum of £2000 to each of her daughters; the residue of his fortune and the whole of this splendid museum going to his nephew. Dr. Matthew Baillie, the latter to be retained by him for thirty years, and then to be handed over to the university of Glasgow—to which institution he also bequeathed £8000 for its maintenance and increase. Dr. Baillie did not wait till the term expired, but handed over to the university the munificent gift some years before that time, and there it remains a monument to Hunter's perseverance, genius, and liberality.—W. B—d.
HUNTER, William, an eminent naturalist and medical writer, was born at Montrose about 1760, and studied at Aberdeen. He entered the service of the East India Company. In 1781 he was transferred to the Bengal medical establishment. From 1784 to 1794 he was secretary of the Asiatic Society, professor and examiner at the Calcutta college, and surgeon to Major Palmer's embassy to Dowlat Raj Scindia. He was also inspector-general of hospitals in Java, surgeon of marines, &c. He acquired a considerable knowledge of Indian literature and languages, and wrote various memoirs and works of considerable interest, among which may be mentioned his contributions to the Asiatic Researches; "A Concise Account of the Kingdom of Pegu;" "Account of Artificial Caverns near Bombay;" "On the Diseases of Seamen," &c. He died in India in 1815, after an absence of many years.—B. H. C.
HUNTINGDON, Henry of. See Henry of Huntingdon.
HUNTINGDON, Selina, Countess of, born in 1707; died in 1791; a lady of great ability, eminent piety, and unusual munificence in the employment of her fortune and influence for promoting and maintaining the great religious revival of the eighteenth century, especially in connection with the preaching of George Whitfield. Selina was a daughter of Washington Shirley, earl of Ferrers; her sisters were Lady Kilmorey and Lady Elizabeth Nightingale. Selina married in 1728 Theophilus Hastings, earl of Huntingdon, who died in 1746, leaving his widow in uncontrolled command of an income amply sufficient for maintaining her position, with her surviving children, in the style which befitted her rank; but in fact confining her expenditure within very narrow limits, she regarded her fortune as a trust which it was her happiness to administer in furtherance of the highest purposes. Personal and family afflictions had had the effect in this, as in so many instances, of awakening this lady's mind toward religious concernments; and from that time forward to the last, she devoted herself to the purpose of diffusing christian principles wherever the opportunity to do so occurred. At the same time, when the two leaders of methodism, Wesley and Whitfield, took adverse positions on points of theology—the first, zealous for what was termed the Arminian, the second, for the Calvinistic mode of holding and proclaiming the one christian truth which gives all glory to God, and leaves with man his undamaged moral responsibility. At that time Lady Huntingdon warmly professed her approval of the Calvinistic doctrine, and as a consequence of this decisive preference she associated herself with Whitfield, and gave the whole of her aid and influence to the side which was opposed to Wesleyan methodism. Whitfield—himself too simple-hearted to wish for the distinction of being the founder of a religious community, a position unsuited to his abilities—gladly gave his powerful aid to his noble patroness in her wide-spread endeavours to maintain and spread Calvinistic methodism. It was thus, therefore, that the countess became the head of what was termed "the countess of Huntingdon's connection." This costly movement included the erection of many spacious chapels, the sustentation of preachers, and the founding and endowment of a college for the education of young men intended for this ministry. This training college was established at Trevecca in Wales. This "connection," and the principal chapels which it comprehends, are still maintained; and within this body the liturgical forms of the Established Church are used, in accordance with the terms of the trust-deeds of each chapel. Lady Huntingdon's qualities of mind were undoubtedly of a very superior order; this is vouched for, not so much by her letters, which are conventional and monotonous and wanting in distinctive individuality, as by her actual administrative performances, by what she did in governing so long a large association, and in directing and controlling, without harshness, the minds of many educated clergy, and—the most difficult of all subjects—half educated, or a tenth part educated, lay preachers. It should moreover be mentioned to the praise of this eminent woman that, obnoxious as her opinions were to men of the world, and repugnant as were her religious practices to the tastes of such persons, she nevertheless maintained to the end her intimacy with many among the leading and most noted public men of that time. She numbered among her friends, and her guests too, such men as Chesterfield and Bolingbroke, as well as several of the bishops. Something of the regal style might well be allowed in the deportment of a woman of rank, who was daily surrounded by men of all grades waiting for her word, many of whom were wholly dependent upon her munificence. So it might be; nevertheless, that her main intention was pure and christian-like, and that ambition was not her passion, will be felt and confessed by every candid reader of her voluminous correspondence. These letters, along with their endless repetitions of certain evangelic phrases, indicate much business-like ability; and they show, like Wesley's, a wakeful, pertinent adherence to the real matter in hand in each instance. They are marked also by often-repeated and unquestionably genuine professions of the deep sense she had of her own unworthiness and unprofitableness. It is certain that she was the object of a very warm affectionate regard among those with whom she was the most intimate. As with Wesley, so with Lady Huntingdon, a formal separation from the Established Church was at length submitted to with extreme reluctance, and not until this course was felt to be inevitable. When at length the irregularities of the methodistic clergy were such as could no longer be winked at by the church authorities, most of them quietly fell back into their places as parish ministers; and as to those who adhered in all things to the "connection," they came to stand on the level of the dissenting ministry generally, and notwithstanding
