Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1186

COO with honour, prove him to have possessed no ordinary talent. So great was his aptitude as an executant, that on one occasion, at his benefit at Drury Lane theatre in 1820, after singing the chief part in an opera, he played solos on nine different instruments. He was repeatedly elected director of the Philharmonic Society, and was the only person who ever alternated the duties of conductor and leader at the concerts of that institution. He was one of the leaders also at the Westminster Abbey festival of 1834, and was a member of every musical society of importance in London. His prize glee, "The Seasons," written in 1828, was the first of many that won the same laurels, and proved his capability for that species of composition to be as felicitous, as did his many theatrical works that for dramatic music. His elementary treatise on singing was held in much esteem, and his success as a teacher was shown in his celebrated pupils. Miss M. Tree, Mrs. Austin, and Miss Rainforth. He was scarcely less noted as a wit than as a musician, and thus all the musical jokes of his time were characteristically fathered upon him. He was a brilliant companion, and his kindly encouragement of young artists influenced not a little the progress of music in England among the present generation.—His son, (familiarly known as ), was one of the first students of the Royal Academy of Music, where he gained great distinction. He held, for many years, all the chief engagements as oboist in England, and was bandmaster of the Life Guards.—G. A. M.  COOKE,, a poet, born about 1707, and died in 1750. When only nineteen years of age, he edited the works of Andrew Marvell. In 1728 was published his translation of Hesiod. He also translated Terence, Cicero's De Natura Deorum, and the Amphitryon of Plautus. His ridicule of Pope's Odyssey in the farce entitled "Penelope," secured for his name the unenviable immortality of the Dunciad.—R. M., A.  COOKE,, a miscellaneous writer, born at Cork, and died in 1824. He came to London, and having purchased a share in two public journals, devoted himself to literary labours. He wrote a poem on "The Art of Living in London," and another entitled "Conversation," besides "Lives of the Actors Macklin and Foote."—R. M., A.  COOMBE,, a miscellaneous writer, born at Bristol in 1741, and died in 1823. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, squandered a large fortune, and found himself dependent on literary pursuits. His best known work is "The Tour of Doctor Syntax in search of the Picturesque." He wrote also "The Devil upon Two Sticks in England;" "The Diaboliad;" "The English Dance of Death;" "The Dance of Life;" "The Royal Register," in 9 vols., &c.—R. M., A.  COOPER. See.  COOPER,, a distinguished surgeon, was born at Brooke in the county of Norfolk, on the 23rd of August, 1768. His father. Dr. Cooper, was the curate of the place. His mother was a popular authoress in her day, and published several novels and other works, the object of which was to elevate the position of women. Astley was the fourth son of these parents. He was distinguished as a boy for his liveliness of disposition, his love of enterprise and fun, rather than for any tendency to study. A simple incident, however—in which, by binding a tight bandage over the upper part of a limb, he stopped bleeding from a wounded artery, and thus saved a boy's life—determined him to make surgery his profession. When in his thirteenth year his father was presented with the living of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, to which place he removed. In August, 1784, young Cooper left home for London, and was bound apprentice to his uncle, Mr. William Cooper, one of the surgeons of Guy's hospital; but with him he only remained three months, being then transferred by his own desire to Mr. Cline, the eminent surgeon of St. Thomas's Hospital. He also attended the lectures of John Hunter, and was one of the few who comprehended the real value of this great man's theories and experiments. In 1787 Sir Astley visited Edinburgh for a short time, and distinguished himself at the Royal Medical Society, though he had not reached twenty years of age. On his return to London he was made demonstrator of anatomy at St. Thomas' hospital; and in 1791 he was permitted to take part, in connection with Mr. Cline, in the lectures on anatomy and surgery which were then delivered. His first class consisted of fifty students, which rapidly increased to four hundred, the largest ever known in London. He was married in the same year to Miss Cock, a distant relation of Mr. Cline. In 1792 he visited Paris, and attended the lectures of Desault and Chopart. Here he was on the breaking out of the Revolution on the 10th of August. In the next course of lectures he delivered in London he confined himself wholly to surgery, and this was the first course given on that subject independent of anatomy. It was perfectly successful. In 1792 he commenced practice as a surgeon. His popularity soon became enormous, and he is said to have received larger fees for special operations than were ever known in the profession. As a lecturer, too, he was remarkably successful. The earliest of his literary productions was published in 1798 in the Medical Records and Researches. On the death of his uncle in 1800 he was appointed surgeon to Guy's hospital; and in this and the following year read two papers before the Royal Society, for which he obtained the Copleian medal of the Royal Society for 1802. In 1805 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In the same year he took an active part in the formation of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, which arose out of some disagreement in the London Medical Society. Mr. Cooper is recorded to have been the first to try the possibility of tying the carotid artery in aneurism. Although his case was unsuccessful, it led the way to future success in the operation. In 1804 he published the first part of his great work on Hernia, and in 1807 the second part appeared. The great expense of the work prevented its extensive sale, and as a commercial speculation he was greatly the loser by it; but it added to his increasing reputation, and in 1813 his annual income amounted to twenty-one thousand pounds, probably the largest ever made by a medical practitioner. In 1813 he was appointed professor of comparative anatomy to the College of Surgeons. In 1817 he performed one of his remarkable operations—that of tying the aorta. It was not successful, but was one of the boldest attempts in the annals of surgery. In 1818, in conjunction with his former pupil and colleague, Mr. Travers, he commenced publishing a series of surgical essays, but the plan was shortly after abandoned. In 1820 Cooper was called in to attend on King George IV., although he held no official position at court. Shortly after he removed a steatomatous tumour from the head of the king, and was then offered a baronetcy, which he accepted on the condition that, having no son, the title should descend to his nephew, Astley Cooper. In 1822 he was elected one of the court of examiners of the College of Surgeons; and the same year he brought out his great work on "Dislocations and Fractures." In 1817 he became president of the College of Surgeons. The grief which the death of his wife in this year occasioned, induced him to retire from practice to his estate at Gadesbridge. Here he lived but a short time, returning to London and to his active life in 1828. The same year he married again, and was appointed serjeant-surgeon to the king. In 1830 he became vice-president of the Royal Society. In 1829 the first part appeared of a work on "The Anatomy and Diseases of the Breast," which was completed in 1840. This was a worthy companion to his previous labours. In 1832 a treatise on the "Thymus Gland" from his pen threw light on the obscure nature of this organ of the body. He was a member of the Royal Institute of France, and an intimate friend of the celebrated surgeon, Dupuytren. In 1834, on the occasion of the installation of the duke of Wellington at Oxford, he received from that university the honorary degree of doctor of civil law. In 1837 he visited Edinburgh, where new honours awaited him. He was made an LL.D. of that university, the freedom of the city was presented to him, and a public dinner was given him by the College of Surgeons. In the year 1840 attacks of giddiness, to which he had been subject, increased, and he had much difficulty of breathing. He died on the 26th of February, 1841, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was buried beneath the chapel of Guy's hospital. A statue to his memory by Bailey has been erected in St. Paul's cathedral. In his will he left £100 a year, to be given every third year to the best essay on some surgical subject.—E. L.  COOPER,, an English naturalist, died at Leeds on 23rd November, 1842, at the age of twenty-five. He was educated for the medical profession, and devoted himself to the study of natural history, more especially of botany and conchology. He took an active part in the establishment of the Botanical Society of London, and afterwards became one of the assistants in the zoological department of the British museum. He published in 1836 a "Flora Metropolitana, or Guide to the 