Editing John Hunter (surgeon) (section)

== Education and training ==
When nearly 21 years old, he visited William in London, where his brother had become an admired teacher of anatomy. Hunter started as his assistant in dissections (1748), and was soon running the practical classes on his own.<ref>Brook C. 1945. ''Battling surgeon''. Strickland, Glasgow. pp. 15–17</ref> It has recently been alleged that Hunter's brother [[William Hunter (anatomist)|William]], and his brother's former tutor [[William Smellie (obstetrician)|William Smellie]], were responsible for the deaths of many women whose corpses were used for their studies on pregnancy.<ref>Shelton, Don 2010. The Emperor's new clothes. ''J. Royal Society of Medicine'', February.</ref><ref>Shelton, Don. ''The real Mr Frankenstein: Sir Anthony Carlisle, medical murders, and the social genesis of Frankenstein''. [http://therealmrfrankenstein.blogspot.com/]</ref> Hunter is alleged to have been connected to these deaths since at the time he was acting as his brother's assistant.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/feb/07/british-obstetrics-founders-murders-claim Founders of British obstetrics 'were callous murderers'], Denis Campbell, 7 February 2010, ''[[The Observer]]'', accessed May 2010</ref>

However, persons who have studied life in [[Georgian England|Georgian]] London agree that the number of [[pregnant]] women who died in London during the years of Hunter's and Smellie's work was not particularly high for that locality and time; the prevalence of [[pre-eclampsia]] – a common condition affecting 10% of all pregnancies, and one which is easily treated today, but for which no treatment was known in Hunter's time – would more than suffice to explain a mortality rate that seems suspiciously high to 21st-century readers.<ref>Inglis, Lucy. [http://www.georgianlondon.com/burking-and-body-snatching-the-deadly-side-of "Burking and Body-Snatching: The Deadly Side of Medicine in Georgian London".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009150529/http://www.georgianlondon.com/burking-and-body-snatching-the-deadly-side-of |date= 9 October 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Loudon |first1=Irvine |title=Deaths in childbed from the eighteenth century to 1935 |journal=Medical History |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=1–41 |year=1986 |pmid=3511335 |pmc=1139579 |doi=10.1017/s0025727300045014}}</ref> In ''The Anatomy of the Gravid Uterus Exhibited in Figures'', published in 1774, Hunter provides case histories for at least four of the subjects illustrated.

Hunter heavily researched blood while [[bloodletting]] patients with various diseases. This helped him develop his theory that inflammation was a bodily response to disease, and was not itself pathological.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century|last=Bynum|first=W. F.|publisher=Cambridge University|year=1994|isbn=978-0-521-27205-6|pages=14–15}}</ref>

Hunter studied under [[William Cheselden]] at [[Chelsea Hospital]] and [[Percival Pott]] at [[St Bartholomew's Hospital]]. Hunter also studied with [[Marie Marguerite Bihéron]], a famous anatomist and wax modeller teaching in London; some of the illustrations in his text were likely hers.<ref name="burton">June K. Burton (2007), ''Napoleon and the Woman Question: Discourses of the Other Sex in French Education, Medicine, and Medical Law, 1799–1815'', Texas Tech University Press (2007), pp.81–82.</ref> After qualifying, he worked at [[St George's Hospital]] as an assistant surgeon from 1756, then as a surgeon from 1768.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Hunter was commissioned as an Army surgeon in 1760 and was a staff surgeon on an expedition to the French island of [[Belle Île]] in 1761, then served in 1762 with the British Army.<ref>Moore, p.&nbsp;188, quoting Hunter's ''The Works'', vol 3 p. 549</ref>