John Gunning (surgeon)

His philippic on retiring from office on 1 July 1790 was preserved by John Flint South:[3] The Court of Assistants appointed a committee to consider the question, and reforms were effected.

[3] Gunning was in general opposed to his colleague at St. George's, John Hunter, who was frequently overbearing to his professional brethren, and appeared to them to neglect the proper business of a surgeon for unpractical pursuits.

A dispute ensued about fees for surgical lectures, which led to a controversy between Gunning, senior surgeon, supported by two of his colleagues, and Hunter.

[3] In 1796 it was determined to sell the Surgeons' Hall on account of the expense attending its repair; but on 7 July Gunning, on behalf of the committee, reported that as no one had bid within £200 of the price set upon it, it had been bought in.

A bill brought into parliament in 1797 to indemnify the company, and to give it greater power over the profession, after passing the commons, was lost in the House of Lords by the influence of Thurlow, owing, it is said, to a grudge against Gunning.

Thurlow having said, "There's no more science in surgery than in butchery" (a remark apparently prompted by his brother's death while undergoing treatment by Hunter).