John Hunter's contributions to the central and peripheral nervous system.

Abstract

While Hunter's writings related to teeth, inflammation, wound healing, venereal disease, digestion and comparative anatomy are well-known, and have been preserved in the Hunterian Museum and Library of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, there has been no attention directed to his anatomy dissections and speculations related to nerves in the central or peripheral nervous systems. Hunter's observations are 1) the termination of the olfactory nerve in the upper nasopharynx and wine tasting, 2) the termination of the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve in skin and nasal pain, 3) the location of the saphenous nerve in the adductor (Hunter's) canal and knee pain, 4) the hypothesis of "delusional" pain and bladder pain, 5) the "Organ of Hunter" and the torpedo, 6) the linear transmission of peripheral nerve impulses leads to specific cortical perceptions, and that 7) nerve compression causes numbness. John Hunter made original contributions regarding nerve, both cranial and peripheral, which have withstood the test of time. We owe this originator of surgical science a debt of gratitude.