Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/272

NAME COOPER 250 CORDELL dent Macy, Dr. Cooper took his place and continued in office until 1833. He was almost idolized for his genius and learning; he lec- tured on chemistry and on political economy; felt qualified to teach metaphysics but thought it "not worth the time required to be bestowed upon it." Almost from the beginning he had difficulty with discipline. The students mis- behaved and rebelled against established order, an attitude with which Cooper might have been sympathetic, because of his own past, but was not. The college was in a turmoil during his incumbency. J. Marion Sims (q. v.) graduated here in 1832 and says of Cooper : — "He was considerably over seventy, a remark- able looking man, never called Dr. Cooper but 'Old Coot,' a name applied to a terrapin, and the name suited him exactly." He was less than five feet tall and had an enormous head. To him is attributed the suggestion of estab- lishing a medical college in South Carolina, a project that Samuel Henry Dickson (q. v.) finally saw to fruition. Cooper was an ardent free trader and an advocate of state rights, publishing anonymously a clever allegorical sketch entitled "Memoirs of a Nullifier," in 1832. In the previous year he had attacked Professor Silliman's views on geologj' in a lecture to his class, Silliman of Yale and he being at that time the only two lecturers on this subject in the country. Silliman's syllabus of lectures was "founded on the Mosaic ac- count of the foundation of the earth and of the Deluge, as being delivered under the authority of divine inspiration." Furthermore, Cooper published a pamphlet on the connec- tion between geology and the Pentateuch, that gave great oif ense. Finally his connection with the college was severed by reorganizing the faculty, dropping his name, but at the same time conferring on him the degree of LL.D. The rest of his life was spent in Columbia, South Carolina, in the revision of the statutes of the state, five volumes having been pub- lished at the time of his death, May 11, 1839. Dr. Cooper possessed great versatility and wide knowledge, displayed as a lecturer and writer. He was an admirable talker. Some of his best known writings are: — "Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy," Charleston, 1836; "Observations on the Writ- ings of Thomas Priestley," 1826; "Foundation of Civil Government" and "On the Consti- tution of the United States." Walter L. Burrace. Hist, of Univ. of So. Carolina, E. L. Green. Portrait. Dictn'y of Amer. Biog., F. S. Drake. 1872. The Story of My Life, J. Marion Sims, M.D., 1884. Cooper, William D. (1820-1897) William D. Cooper, physician, the son of Leroy D. Cooper, a farmer of Culpeper County, Virginia, was born in that county on December 28, 1820. He was educated in the schools of his native county, and for several years was himself a teacher in the local schools. In 1842 he began to study medicine with a physician, and in 1845 graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania, then settled at Morrisville, Virginia, in the same year and began at once to build up a large country practice. He was a member of the Medical Society of Virginia, and was in 1882 elected president of that society, and made an honorary mem- ber the year following. Dr. CocJper married in June, 1845, Miss Mattie F. Henry, daughter of Fountain Henry, Esq., of Culpeper County. Catarrh of the stomach with liver complica- tions caused his death on October 30, 1897, at his home in Morrisville, Virginia. His contributions to medical literature were not numerous, but were of considerable value. The following may be read with interest: "Presidential Address" (Transactions of Medical Society of Virginia, 1883) ; "Pro- tracted Labor" (Virginia Medical Monthly. Vol. xi.) ; "Carious Destruction of Two Cer- vical and Dorsal Vertebrae, Death, Post- mortem" (Transactions of Medical Society of Virginia, 1888). Robert M. Slaughter. Transactions of Medical Society of Virginia, 1898. Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy (1843-1913) Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, medical his- torian and teacher, was born June 25, 1843, at Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia), and died of cerebral embolism secondary to an abscess August 27, 1913, at Baltimore, Md. He came from old English stock that emi- grated from Wiltshire, England, in 1743, his earliest forbear being the Rev. John Cordell. His father was the Rev. Dr. Levi O'Connor Cordell and his mother Christine Turner Cor- dell. He was educated at Charlestown Acad- emy and later at the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, Virginia, and spent a short time at the Virginia Military Institute. At eighteen he enlisted in Wise's Legion as a private of the Confederate Army and served from 1861- 65. He was wounded at Winchester, Sep- tember 19, 1865, and was a prisoner of war from March 2, 1865, to June 19, 1865. During the latter part of his service he was a com- missioned officer with the rank of lieutenant. He married Louise Tazewell Southall, of Southfield, Isle of Wight Co., Va., and had