Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/370

Rh microscopic anatomy, and aflPord abundant evidence of his powers of observation and skill in depicting the most difficult objects. It is this rare and previously almost unexampled union of the observer and the artist that has placed Mr. Bauer in the first rank of scientific draughtsmen. His paintings, as the more finished of his produc- tions may well be termed, are no less perfect as models of artistic skill and effect, than as representations of natural objects.

He died at his residence on Kew Green, on the 11th of December last, in the 83rd year of his age*.

Sir Astley Paston Cooper, Bart., was the fourth son of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper, of Yarmouth in Norfolk. His mother was a daughter of James Bransby, Esq., of Shottisham, and was known as the authoress of a novel entitled ' The Exemplary Mother.' Sir Astley was born at Brooke, in the same county, on the 23rd of August, 1768. Even in his boyhood he was noted for his bold and enterprising spirit, the sociability and kindness of his disposition, and for the animation with which he entered into all the sports of his juvenile companions. After receiving from the village schoolmaster, and from his father, who was a good scholar, some portion of classical instruction, he was placed, at the age of fifteen, with Mr. Turner, a surgeon and apothecary at Yarmouth. Here he remained but a few months, and was then sent to London, and bound apprentice to his uncle, Mr. William Cooper, one of the surgeons of Guy's Hospital, but was soon after transferred, by his own desire, to Mr. Cline, who had already attained great eminence, and was surgeon of St. Thomas's Hospital. This connexion af- forded him ample opportunities of acquiring professional know- ledge, under the guidance of a master distinguished by a truly philosophical mind, and for whom his pupil always felt the most profound regard and veneration. Young Cooper's labours in the wide field of observation thus open to him, both in the hospital and dissecting-room, were unremitting; and the practical information he there acquired formed the solid basis of his future fame. He made a short visit to Edinburgh in the year 1787, and, although only in his nineteenth year, was a distinguished member of the Royal Medi- cal Society of that place. On his return to London, Mr. Cline, who was the teacher of anatomy, physiology and surgery at St. Thomas's Hospital, appointed him his demonstrator of anatomy, and soon after gave up to him a part of the anatomical lectures. Sir Astley also gained the consent of Mr. Cline and the other surgeons of the hospi- tals of Guy and St. Thomas, to give a course of lectures on the prin- ciples and practice of surgery, a subject which had previously only formed a part of the anatomical course. He had now full scope for the display of those talents which afterwards shone forth on the wider theatre of the world, in a profession of which he became the bright- est ornament. At first he was attended only by fifty students ; but

Proceedings of the Linnean Society for 1841, p. 101.
 * The above account is chiefly an abridgement of that contained in the