The case books of John Hunter FRS

Surgery in the 18thC, practised without aseptic procedures or anaesthetics, incurred a high mortality rate due to physiological shock and post-operative infection. John Hunter, being the first to apply the results of scientific research to the teaching of anatomy and operative surgery, was instrumental in raising the professional and social status of the surgeon. He played an important role in the establishment of organised, comprehensive surgical training to replace the apprenticeship system. Hunter deplored the tendency of some surgical contemporaries to embark on unnecessary invasive surgery for financial gain rather than for the well-being of the patient, and advocated a more conservative approach to surgery. He was acutely aware of the need to improve operative technique and to control the pain experienced by the patient. Unlike the teaching of his contemporaries, Hunter stressed the relationship between structure and function and demonstrated physiological principles, believing that the future of surgery lay, at least partly, in assisting the body's own powers to accommodate to trauma, physical disease or environmental change. Hunter based his lectures on the Principles of Su