William Hunter (3) (1718–1783)

William Hunter was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the older brother of

John Hunter, who also became a distinguished physician. William earned a medical degree from the University of Glasgow and became a licensed physician in London in 1756. By his high standards of practice, he did much to establish obstetrics as an accepted branch of medicine and was appointed physician extraordinary to Queen Charlotte in 1762. He also became a famous teacher and lecturer on surgery and anatomy. While visiting France in 1743-1744, he had observed that medical students there were provided with cadavers for dissection; he introduced this practice to Great Britain. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society in 1767. When the Royal Academy was founded in 1768, Dr. Hunter was appointed professor of anatomy. He bequeathed his large collection of books, coins, and works of art to the University of Glasgow, which inspired the opening of the Hunterian Museum, Scotland’s first public museum.
William Hunter wrote three books, the best-known being The Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, Exhibited in Figures (1774).