The Hunterian Professorship, named after John Hunter, is the title awarded to a surgeon who is elected to deliver the Hunterian lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCSE). According to British surgeon Harold Ellis, the list of Hunterian professors reflects the history of British surgery.
History
Founding In 1799, nearly six years after John Hunter's death, the executors of his estate sold his museum, which included an extensive collection of anatomical specimens, to the British government. Later that year, the Treasury offered the museum to the RCSE (then known as the Company of Surgeons) under various conditions for its safekeeping. After some negotiation regarding small particulars, the museum was transferred to the RCSE in December 1799, with the final trust deed containing the clause: That one Course of Lectures, not less than twenty-four in number, on Comparative Anatomy and other subjects, illustrated by the preparations, shall be given every year by some Member of the Company.
The following year, the RCSE set up a Board of Curators to oversee the museum collection, and it was decided to begin construction of a new building to house it next to the RCSE's offices in Lincoln's Inn Fields. During this period, educational activities were almost wholly suspended at the RCSE, with the first series of Hunterian lectures being delayed until 1810, and the second series until 1813, the year construction was completed, enabling the collection to finally be moved.
In May 1813, in preparation for the 1814 lecture series, the RCSE created ongoing Hunterian Professorship positions in comparative anatomy and surgery. For the following two decades, the series of twenty-four lectures would be split roughly equally between the two appointments.
1830s restructuring In 1831 the Hunterian Lectures were suspended, following unrest led by the surgeon and medical reformer Thomas Wakley. They resumed in 1832 under stricter control, only to be suspended again between 1834–1836 while the Hunterian Museum was rebuilt.
In April 1836, to prepare for its grand reopening, the RCSE elected Richard Owen as Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy alongside Edward Stanley as Hunterian Professor of Surgery, on the understanding that Owen would present twenty-four lectures each year, beginning in May 1837 after the six surgical lectures presented by Stanley. Owen was to continue this regimen for almost twenty years until his 1856 departure for the British Museum.
Later reforms In 1894, to make it easier to find lecturers, the Lords of the Treasury agreed to revise the Clause to: That one course of lectures, not less than 12 in number, on comparative anatomy and other subjects, illustrated by preparations from the Hunterian Collection and the other contents of the Museum, shall be given every year by Fellows or Members of the College.
The rules were altered in 1961 with the addition of: Additional lectures, not exceeding three in number, on medical or dental subjects, may be given every year by the Fellows or members of the College, Fellows in Dental Surgery or Fellows in the Faculty of Anaesthetists.
Notable Past Hunterian Professors
19th century +List of Hunterian Professors Lecture seriesDomain Image Name Notes 1810, 1813, 1822Comparative anatomyEverard Home 1814–1815Comparative anatomyAstley Cooper1816–1819Comparative anatomyWilliam Lawrence1820–1821, 1823Comparative anatomyBenjamin Collins Brodie1824–1828Comparative anatomyJoseph Henry Green1829–1830Comparative anatomyHerbert Mayo1832–1833Comparative anatomyCharles Bell1837–1855Comparative anatomyRichard Owen1857–1859Comparative anatomy and physiologyGeorge Busk1860–1861Comparative anatomy and physiologyWilliam Scovell Savory1862–1863Comparative anatomy and physiologyGeorge Gulliver1863–1869Comparative anatomy and physiologyThomas Henry Huxley1870–18731876–1884 (shared)Comparative anatomy and physiologyWilliam Henry Flower1874–18751876–1885 (shared)Comparative anatomy and physiologyWilliam Kitchen Parker1885–1887 (shared)1889–1900 (shared)Comparative anatomy and physiologyN/A (from 1895)Charles Stewart 1885–1886 (shared) Comparative anatomy and physiology Sir Frederick Treves 1885–1886 (shared)Comparative anatomy and physiologyAlexander Hill1885–1886 (shared)Comparative anatomy and physiologyWilliam Arthur Brailey Appointed 1888–1889 Comparative anatomy and physiology John Bland-Sutton 1810 SurgeryWilliam Blizard 1814–1817 Surgery John Abernethy 1878 Surgery and pathologyThomas Spencer Wells
20th & 21st century +List of Hunterian Professors Year Image Name Notes 1904 John Lockhart-Mummery 1913 Wilfred Trotter 1916John Bland-Sutton 1930s Berkeley Moynihan 1970 Graham Stack Lord Ara Darzi 2024Rajarshi Mukherjee
See also Arris and Gale Lecture Hunterian Oration
Notes
References
External links Royal College of Surgeons – Lectureships