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support out of the limited funds at the disposal of Mr. Hunter’s executors, at a time when the quartern loaf was occasionally at two shillings, contrived to maintain the entire Museum, valued at that time by Sir Joseph Banks and others at £20,000, in a sound condition for seven years; his additional occupation being that of culling from the mass of manuscripts also placed under his charge, such knowledge as would enable him to class, and otherwise profitably arrange it. “His merit,” says one man who was especially well calculated to appreciate such services, “consisted in his single-minded fulfilment of arduous duties under peculiar difficulties, and his noble self-devotion to the achievements and memory of his great master.”
Sir Everard Home, the brother-in-law of Mr. Hunter, having undertaken the charge of preparing a catalogue of the Hunterian Collection, Mr. Clift was much occupied in promoting such investigations as appeared requisite for that purpose.
The results of most of these labours have been recorded in the Transactions of the Royal Society, and with few exceptions, the illustrations of the numerous papers on “Comparative Anatomy,” are from the accurate pencil of Mr. Clift.
In the year 1826, the proffered assistance of Sir Εἰ, Home having been withdrawn, consequent on the alienation between himself and Mr. Clift, arising out of the well-known destruction of the Hunterian MS., Mr. Clift applied to the Council for the aid of some person well versed in human anatomy; and Mr. Abernethy, then a member of the Board of Curators, proposed the appointment of Mr. Owen, with a view to render that assistance in the formation of the cata-
