title: The burning of John Hunter's papers: a new explanation.
abstract: It is commonly accepted that Sir Everard Home destroyed the Hunterian Manuscripts to hide the extent to which he had used them for his own publications. We suggest that his real reason for burning the papers was to hide the identity of the person who had been the subject of John Hunter's famous inoculation experiment.
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic; D013587:Syphilis / Q000266:history; D006113:United Kingdom; D014611:Vaccination / Q000266:history*