LIFE OF SIR ASTLEY P. COOPER, BART. | umph the proud position which he so long and so patiently has sought.

From the Dublin University Magazine.

Life of Sir Astley Paston Cooper, Bart., &c.
By Barnsby Blake Cooper, Esq., F. R. S.
In two volumes 8vo. Parker: London,

1843.

who entered on his professional career But the biography before us is of one with all the adventitious aids of birth, position, and fortune. His road to eminence, although requiring the energies of his talent THE work before us-although, as its to enable him successfully to journey over author observes in his preface, "it must it, was yet without the many hills and holbe always to the relatives, the friends, and lows-the obstructions which comparative even the acquaintances of the person whose poverty and the want of a connexion have life is delineated, a source of melancholy thrown so often in the way of some of the satisfaction"-will not prove so generally brightest ornaments of the medical prointeresting as though it were the history fession.

of one who, without any aid from station There is always a certain degree of inor fortune, had risen from an humble posi- terest attached to the life of any one distion, and attained the highest honors of tinguished above his fellows, whether his his profession solely by the perseverance position be attained by the power of his of his industry and the exercise of his own talents, or by those fortuitous circumabilities. stances which so frequently place a man of little more than ordinary intellect in a situation which without them he never would have reached.

The young aspirant for fame and distinction in any profession-particularly if his means be humble, and his success therefore in a greater degree dependent on himself-loves to contemplate the career of those who have toiled on through all the cares and troubles that beset the first steps in the path of life-who, perhaps, with the cold sneers of the world, have felt all the bitterness of poverty amid the many sore and trying difficulties of their "early struggles;" but who have at length overcome them, and by the exercise of their talents, and the ceaseless efforts of untiring, indefatigable industry reached the goal of their ambition, and won for themselves a name which the world could withhold no longer. In the life of one who has thus attained to eminence, the young tyro in the outset of his own career can feel his interest aroused, and all his warmest sympathies awakened. He can trace in every circumstance of the life that is pictured before him-in its There are certainly many things to inevery struggle-its every disappointment terest us in these volumes, but not by any at first-some resemblance to his own, and means, to that absorbing degree which the he can thus be led to believe that for him author seems to think must be felt as a too the course is open, and to hope that he matter of course. That Sir Astley Cooper also may reach the goal-a winner in the was a clever man there is no doubt; but race of fame. There is something in every that his talents were so exceedingly presentence to rivet his attention, and he is eminent as to warrant his biographer in ascarried on through all its details-un-suming a tone of such ultra-laudation, we wearied, because they come home to his deny. own feelings, and he can say, "such diffi culties I too have surmounted, and such will I yet overcome." He can then read with breathless interest the visions of happiness which are opened to the eye of the poor beginner by the receipt of his "first guinea," and can follow him from that moment eagerly and anxiously, as step by step he steadily advances until he reaches in tri

So far as an interest of this description. goes, we think the work before us may well excite it; but we repeat, there is but little claim on the sympathies of that class of readers who should be expected to reap the greatest benefits from it and from the example of its subject, viz.,-the young members of the medical profession.

The author appears to take the greatest pains to prove how totally independent Sir Astley Cooper was both by birth and fortune, of the difficulties which others have been obliged to encounter in the commencement of their career; and we really think there is nothing so peculiarly worthy of admiration in the successful life of, as he is pleased to designate him, "one of the most illustrious surgeons that ever adorned the science he professed."

He tells us that Sir Astley Cooper was his uncle, and that if, in his undertaking, (as his biographer,) his expressions may be thought to savor somewhat of extravagance, the respect he entertained for him from the period of his boyhood, the gratitude he owes him for the instruction he derived at his hands, and the affection he always bore towards him as a relative, may

surely be admitted, if not in justification of acquirements for a distinguished member the fault, at least in extenuation of its degree, and that "partiality can scarcely be considered culpable when its absence would be almost criminal."

Sir Astley Cooper's success in life was, It appears he was at this period, and even we think, in a great measure owing to his for years after, extremely wild, and deeasy kindness of manner, steadiness of lighting in all kinds of mischief-escaping nerve, and pleasing personal appearance, whenever he found it possible from his teachqualifications which he possessed in an ers to join in whatever sports were going eminent degree, and the more likely to win forward in the neighborhood, and continusuccess, as they were rarely to be met with ally engaged in a variety of pranks which among his cotemporaries. created alarm in the minds of his family, and occasionally were of such a nature as to bring upon him his parents' displeasure.

We have no hesitation in saying that there are many members of the medical profession amongst us, who, if they moved in the same sphere and with the same opportunities as Sir Astley Cooper, would prove themselves in the knowledge and science of their profession, at least fully his equals,and in general information and literary attainments immeasurably his superiors. Sir Astley Cooper's biographer statessomewhat unnecessarily that in literature and science unconnected with his profession he was by no means proficient, and that at no period of his life was the amount of his classical knowledge such as to induce him to peruse the works generally read by the more advanced in such pursuits; the gratification which they are capable of affording to the polished scholar, being to him more than counterbalanced by the drudgery he had to encounter in arriving at the interpretation.

This is, indeed, a very low standard of

scholars had rung, and they were all hastening to the school-room, when some one snatched a hat from one of the boys' heads and threw it into one of the 'meres,' or ponds of water, which are situated in the village, and by which they were passing. The boy, lamenting the loss of his hat, and fearing he should be punished for his absence from the school, was crying very bitterly, when there came to the spot a young gentleman dressed, as was then the fashion of the day, in a scarlet coat, a three-cocked hat, a glazed black collar or stock, nankeen small clothes, and white silk stockings-his hair hanging in ringlets down his back. He seeing the boy crying, and being informed of the cause of his sorrow, deliberately marched into the water, obtained the hat, and returned it to the unlucky owner. This young gentleman was no other than Master Astley Cooper, &c."

Mr. Cooper, in relating these adventures and pranks of his uncle, says:

"Although by some they may be looked upon as merely the acts of a careless, headstrong child, and unworthy of notice in a life so signalized as that of Sir Astley Cooper, they nevertheless, to those who delight to trace the man in the boy, possess an abundant share of interest."

arrived. The bleeding was continuing, or probably having for a time ceased, had broken out afresh. All was alarm and confusion, when the young Astley in the midst of the distressing scene, alone capable of deliberating, and perceiving the necessity of instantly preventing further loss of blood, had the presence of mind to encircle the limb with his pocket-handkerchief above the wound, and afterwards to bind it round so tightly that it acted as a ligature upon the wounded vessel and stopped the bleeding. To these means his foster-brother owed a prolongation of life until the arrival of the surgeon who had been sent for from London.”

The gratitude of the friends of this poor boy, and the flattering applauses of his own for his conduct on this occasion, appears to have given his thoughts their first bent towards the profession of surgery. The success of his uncle, Mr. William Cooper of London, together with his own previous inattention to study and perhaps positive dislike to a college life and literary pursuits, had also considerable weight with him; but it was not until a later period that he determined to devote his life to it.

Now, with every possible deference to Mr. Cooper, we cannot exactly understand The anecdote above related is the only by what course of reasoning he can prove one of his "boyhood years" in which we any analogy between a love for provok- can trace the slightest approach to "the ing donkies and a fondness for anatomical character of the man in the boy ;" and we pursuits, or between directing a horse to hope Mr. Cooper will not be angry with leap over a cow and the performance of us for our inability to perceive any great a successful surgical operation; and we precocity of intellect displayed by his uncan only say, that if a predilection for cle in such feats as climbing on the roof such pursuits be an omen of future great- of a church-ripping open old pillows, and ness in the medical profession, there are letting the feathers fly from the belfry to sundry young gentlemen of the present fall as if they had been a shower from day for whom we may augur a most bril- the clouds, and thus frighten away the liant and successful career. There is one little wits the poor rustic possessed, with anecdote, however, which we think well sundry other similar performances which in worthy of notice, as it is strikingly illus- our days-doubtless owing to our lack of trative of that readiness and self-posses-prophetic vision-instead of being looked sion which so eminently distinguished him upon as forebodings of future distinction, in after life;-the circumstance to which would very probably entail upon the unit relates occurred when he was about fortunate perpetrator no other reward than thirteen, and happened as follows. After a sound flogging. alluding to his foster mother

In such wild freaks as these, Astley Cooper seems to have spent the greater portion of his time until his thoughts were again brought back to surgery by the representations of his uncle, Mr. William Cooper, who was himself a surgeon of

“A son of this person's, somewhat older than Astley Cooper, had been ordered by his father to convey some coals to the house of Mr. Castell, the vicar, and while on the road, by some accident the poor lad fell down in front of the cart, the wheel of which, before he could recov-considerable eminence. er himself, passed over his thigh, and, among other injuries, caused the laceration of its princi pal artery. The unfortunate boy, paralyzed by the shock of the accident and sinking under the loss of blood-the flow of which was attempted to be stopped by the pressure of handkerchiefs applied to the part only-was carried almost exhausted to his home, where, Astley Cooper having heard of the accident which had befallen his foster-brother, almost immediately afterwards

"The animated descriptions of London and its scenes, and the numerous anecdotes which his uncle, who mixed much in society, would narrate in the presence of his young nephew, led him earnestly to bend his thoughts towards the metropolis, and determined his selection of that profession which, from his uncle's position and influence, offered him above all others, an advantageous opening.

suit."

"Still, however, there can be but little doubt ions is dispelled-let him but feel the that much of this anxiety to visit London was touch of that sacred finger which is proattributable rather to his taste for pleasure and verbially gifted with the power of curing excitement than to any wish for industrious employment. For when he had finally determined the "king's evil," and, like that disease, on becoming his uncle's pupil (which was not, all his preconceived ideas of radicalism and Sir Astley used to say, until after witnessing an democracy are dissipated as by a spell, and operation for the extraction of stone by Dr. Dou- he comes forth a highly respectable Tonee of Norwich,) there was no evidence of his ry! Democracy is an exceedingly conmaking any special resolution of devotion to his venient creed for those who have nothing adopted science, or exhibiting any unusual de- to lose-the professed object of its followsire for achieving greatness of name in its pur-ers being to reduce all above them to their Accordingly in August 1784, being then own level; but we never knew any to carabout sixteen, he went to London and ry the feeling so far as to consider themselves took up his residence at the house of Mr. on a level with those below them. Clive, a man of some note in the profes- to have devoted himself to the acquisition Astley Cooper does not appear at first sion, and one of the surgeons of St. of professional knowledge with any greatThomas's hospital, who was in the habit er degree of zeal than he had previously of taking a few pupils to board with him. Here he appears to have imbibed those bestowed on his literary studies; his social democratic feelings which shed their bane- qualities opened the way to an intimacy ful influence on the circle which now surwith young men of his own standing in rounded him, and which were at the time himself to be led into all the dissipations London, and in their company he suffered fast spreading themselves over Europe. the metropolis afforded. However, in the Mr. Cooper, speaking of this period, re- year following he became as remarkable for his industry as he had formerly been for his idleness, and had attained a degree of anatomical knowledge far beyond that possessed by any other of the pupils of his own standing in the hospital to which he was attached.

marks: :

"Nothing could have been more probable than that a young man of ardent and sanguine temper like Astley Cooper should be captivated by a set of opinions at variance with those of the stricter aristocratic school in which he had been educate; possessing to him all the charms of novelty, freedom from restraint, and ostensibly having for their object a state of social perfection which he had not then experience enough to determine to be altogether Utopian."

From this period his rise in his profession was steady and rapid. He had made such progress in his knowledge of anatomy, in his second session, that he was freEven the religious principles of Astley quently called upon by the pupils to assist Cooper seem to have been infected for a and direct them in their dissections, and time by his association with Horne Took, proving by his ready concession to their Thelwall, &c., among whom subjects of re- wishes that he had both the knowledge ligion were either ridiculed, or wholly and industry requisite to facilitate their ladisregarded. However his intercourse bors, he at once established a reputation with such men affected for a time his opin- which made him sought after by his fellow ions, he appears to have afterwards exchang- pupils as their demonstrator, and afterwards ed them for others of a somewhat more procured him, immediately on the office loyal nature, which change was partly becoming vacant, the offer of this desirable brought about by the inhuman scenes he position. witnessed during the progress of the Thus early did Astley Cooper arrive at French Revolution, partly by other rea

sons.

It is a curious fact, and one which may well afford considerable scope to the inquiring mind of some political philosopher, that a decided tendency to whig-radicalism has always been a characteristic of the medical profession.

distinction; doubtless his talents and the considerable portion of knowledge which they had enabled him to acquire in so short a time, were, in a great degree, the cause of his success; but it cannot be supposed that they were the sole means which led to it. If he had been, like many others of his profession, thrown entirely upon his There seems, however, to be one infalli- own resources, without friends and without ble means of exorcising this half rebellious any influence, save what his talent could spirit. Let the most ultra whig-radical of procure him, it is more than probable that them all come once within the influence he would have been left to struggle on of a royal smile, and, as if by magic, the through all the difficulties which so many cloud which enveloped his political opin-others have been obliged to overcome,

It appears strange that a man should have occupied the exalted position of Sir Astley Cooper for such a time, and in a country so pre-eminent for literary acquirement as England, with so small a share of learning and general information as he possessed. But these are qualifications by no Here, then, we find Astley Cooper, while means indispensable or essential to his the period of his pupilage was still unexbranch of the medical profession, when pired, a lecturer and a demonstrator, with compared with what the physician finds a salary the amount of which for one year