Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1975) vol 57
Letters from the past From John Hunter to Edward Jenner
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Dear Jenncr I recd yolurs with the Herons legs. coulld you not get a live Heron or Bittern?~ and see how they make that noise oi send them to me; I will pay expenses; by the by you was to have sent me some Hedge Hogs. I am putting my things into some order and shall hind some Don Saltero's for you. My proof of the none existence of matter is in colours. There being no such thing as a primary or immutable collour, every colour being a mixture of two, making a third. Thus green is a mixture of blue and yellow; but what is blue and yellow? Blue is a mixture of Purple and green. Yellow is a mixture of green anld orange; and so on of the other collours; Therefore all collours are compounds, but what are they compounds of, of nothing but themselves, and what are themselves ? nothing. If there were three collours that were permanent (for with less than three we can hardly compound to any extent) which could nolt be produced from any compounding of collours then I would say, there is something immutable in matter, altho metaphysicians might say, this was only an immutable idea, or an idea of imm:utability, but that is only applying abstract reasoning to matter or what we call matter, but when we see that there is no such thing as permanency in one species of matter viz light and that it can be proved from the matter itself, it then comes more home to our understandings, than all the reasoning in the world. yours always
J
-H-
330
Letters from the past
Dear Jenner I have delay'd writing longer than I intended and longer than what I should have done, and even now I do not know well what to write. I love a new name so well, that I could have wished it had been christened. Mr Jones informed me that there was a man of some fortune making expts with the same view, he may hit on some method better than the present, and which may or may not be as good as yours or it may be thought to be as good. I ask'd Jones if he had any objection to have it advertised at his shop he did not give me a direct answer, and he is now out of town I should be glad to have a few of the printed accounts, I could send them to different people, to Black and Cullen xc amongst the rest. I like your expt uponi the Dogs with it, if you make any more let me have them The expt on the Dogs Thigh you did not finish. you told he had extracted the Plug, and that the ball of the Therm: went in with ease but you did not say how high the Mercury rose. Let me know what service I can be to you HUNTER J In the first part of this letter is an allusion to Jenner's method for improving the purity of tartar emetic, a preparation of antimony tartrate commonly used either extcrnally as a counterirritant or internally as a diaphoretic, expectorant, or emetic. This was indeedl an early sally into what is now termed 'quality control' of a product. Hunter's interest in the preparation is to be found in four more letters, one of vhich contains injunctions on the experiments with the young cuckoo which werc to earn Jenner his place as a great natural scientist prior to his work on cowpox and vaccination.
Letters from the past From John Hunter to Edward Jenner
..........~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~4.
Dear Jenncr I recd yolurs with the Herons legs. coulld you not get a live Heron or Bittern?~ and see how they make that noise oi send them to me; I will pay expenses; by the by you was to have sent me some Hedge Hogs. I am putting my things into some order and shall hind some Don Saltero's for you. My proof of the none existence of matter is in colours. There being no such thing as a primary or immutable collour, every colour being a mixture of two, making a third. Thus green is a mixture of blue and yellow; but what is blue and yellow? Blue is a mixture of Purple and green. Yellow is a mixture of green anld orange; and so on of the other collours; Therefore all collours are compounds, but what are they compounds of, of nothing but themselves, and what are themselves ? nothing. If there were three collours that were permanent (for with less than three we can hardly compound to any extent) which could nolt be produced from any compounding of collours then I would say, there is something immutable in matter, altho metaphysicians might say, this was only an immutable idea, or an idea of imm:utability, but that is only applying abstract reasoning to matter or what we call matter, but when we see that there is no such thing as permanency in one species of matter viz light and that it can be proved from the matter itself, it then comes more home to our understandings, than all the reasoning in the world. yours always
J
-H-
330
Letters from the past
Dear Jenner I have delay'd writing longer than I intended and longer than what I should have done, and even now I do not know well what to write. I love a new name so well, that I could have wished it had been christened. Mr Jones informed me that there was a man of some fortune making expts with the same view, he may hit on some method better than the present, and which may or may not be as good as yours or it may be thought to be as good. I ask'd Jones if he had any objection to have it advertised at his shop he did not give me a direct answer, and he is now out of town I should be glad to have a few of the printed accounts, I could send them to different people, to Black and Cullen xc amongst the rest. I like your expt uponi the Dogs with it, if you make any more let me have them The expt on the Dogs Thigh you did not finish. you told he had extracted the Plug, and that the ball of the Therm: went in with ease but you did not say how high the Mercury rose. Let me know what service I can be to you HUNTER J In the first part of this letter is an allusion to Jenner's method for improving the purity of tartar emetic, a preparation of antimony tartrate commonly used either extcrnally as a counterirritant or internally as a diaphoretic, expectorant, or emetic. This was indeedl an early sally into what is now termed 'quality control' of a product. Hunter's interest in the preparation is to be found in four more letters, one of vhich contains injunctions on the experiments with the young cuckoo which werc to earn Jenner his place as a great natural scientist prior to his work on cowpox and vaccination.
