Brilliant pioneer surgeon in an age when the art of surgery was it its infancy, tireless investigator of the workings of the human body and explorer of the mysteries of the natural world, John Hunter rose from obscurity to become one of the most distinguished physicians and scientists England ever produced.

A career in medicine seemed an impossible dream to young John Hunter as he grew up in 18th-Century Scotland. When he went to London to join his brilliant, elegant older brother, already a famous physician, he lacked the social graces. It soon became clear, however, that he had a master surgeon's touch and the probing intellect of a born scientist. Yet his way to success was barred by class snobbery and stubborn medical prejudice against surgery.

Hunter had to battle the leading doctors of his day to win  acceptance of his invaluable surgical innovations. He had to endure long years of seeming failure before he won secure professional standing and a chance to begin his great medical museum. After his tragic death from a dangerous medical experiment he performed on himself, his reputation had to triumph over the dishonesty of those who sought to claim his discoveries as their own.

From the dust jacket