more delighted as he recounted the exciting incidents of London social and professional life. The uncle seems, in turn, to have been pleased with the vivacity and spirit of his nephew; and thus it was it was that Astley conceived an intense desire to repair to the great metropolitan scene of action, of which he was hearing so much, and could so easily imagine much more. It does not seem to have been any particular enthusiasm for surgery and anatomy that actuated him at that early period, but probably nothing more than a taste for pleasure and excitement,* which he felt could be gratified to an indefinite extent in London life. He had even committed himself to the adoption of his uncle's profession, without having indicated any desire to achieve excellence or eminence in it. The spark of ambition seems to have fallen into his ardent temperament, on witnessiug the terrible operation for stone, performed by a Dr. Donnée, of Norwich. This fact we have on his own authority. In the year 1836, he paid a visit to Norwich, and on quitting it, wrote the following letter, enclosing £30 for the hospital, to Dr. Yelloly "MY DEAR SIR: It was at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital that I first saw Dr. Donnee operate in a masterly manner; and it was this which inspired me with a strong impression of the utility of surgery, and led me to embark in it as my profession." How mysterious the impulse which thus determines men to the adoption of particular pursuits! Some to music, others to poetry, to painting, to sculpture: some to the moral, others to the physical sciences: some to the art of war, others to divinity, law or physic: some to criticism and belles-lettres, others to simple money-making. It is rarely that a man achieves real distinction in a pursuit which is forced upon him. He may follow it creditably, but eminence is generally out of the question: it is only where a man voluntarily adopts a walk in life, in accordance with inward promptings, that a likelihood of success and distinction is begotten. Dr. Johnson observed that genius was great natural powers accidentally directed; but this can hardly be accepted as a true or sufficient definition. A man of wonderful musical or mathematical capabilities, may have his attention accidentally directed to a sphere of action where those capabilities will never have the opportunity of developing themselves. It would seem, in truth, as if | Providence had implanted in many men great aptitudes and inclinations for particular pursuits, and given them special opportunities for gratifying such inclinations. Look, for instance, at a lad witnessing the operation to which we have alluded; nine out of ten would look on with dismay or disgust, and fly terrified from a scene which excites profound interest, and awakens all the mental powers of a youth standing beside him. And this was the case with Astley Cooper, whose enthusiasm for the profession of surgery was kindled on witnessing one of its most formidable and appalling exhibitions. Doubtless the two brothers-the parson and the surgeon-themselves sons of a surgeon of provincial celebrity, made short work of it as soon as they had ascertained young Astley's inclination for the profession of which his uncle was so eminent a member, and in which he possessed such facilities for advancing the interests of that nephew. It was therefore agreed that Astley, then in his sixteenth year, should become his uncle's articled pupil. As, however, it was inconvenient for Mr. Cooper to receive pupils into his own house, he effected an arrangement with a very eminent brother surgeon, Mr. Cline, one of the surgeons of the neighboring hospital, (St. Thomas',) by means of which young Astley became an inmate with the latter gentleman. This matter proved to have been, in one respect, managed very prudently. Mr. Cooper intimates that young Astley would have found his own mercurial disposition, and flighty habits, incompatible with those of his rough and imperious uncle, who was, moreover, a very severe disciplinarian. Mr. Cline, on the other hand, was a man of easy and engaging manners, of amiable disposition, and perhaps the finest operating surgeon of the day. To these advantages, however, there were very dismal drawbacks, for he was both a Deist and a democrat of the wildest kind-associating, as might be expected, with those who entertained his own objectionable and dangerous opinions--with, amongst others, such notorious demagogues a Horne Tooke and Thelwall. It is probablet that Astley's worthy father and mother were ignorant of these unfavorable characteristics of Mr. Cline, or they never would have consented to their son entering into such contaminating society. We shall here present our readers with a striking sketch, from the pencil of Sir Astley himself in after life, of the gentleman to whom his uncle, Mr. Cooper-who could not have been ignorant of Mr. Cline's disfiguring peculiarities-had thought proper to intrust his nephew: "Mr. Cline was a man of excellent judgment, of great caution, of accurate knowledge; particularly taciturn abroad, yet open, friendly, and very conversationable at home. "In surgery, cool, safe, judicious, and cautious; in anatomy, sufficiently informed for teaching and practice. He wanted industry and professional zeal, liking other things better than the study and practice of his profession. "In politics a democrat, living in friendship with Horne Tooke. "His temper was scarcely ever ruffled. "Towards the close of life he caught an ague, which lessened his powers of mind and body."(P. 98–99 ) The poisonous atmosphere which he breathed at Mr. Cline's, produced effects upon young Astley's character which we shall witness by-and-by. They proved, happily, but temporary, owing to the strength of the wholesome principles which had been instilled into him by his revered parents. Mr. Cooper gives us reason to believe that a mother's eye had been almost the earliest to detect traces of the deleterious influences to which her son had become subject in London; and perhaps the following little extract from a letter of this good lady to her gay son, may bring tender recollections of similar warnings received by himself, into the mind of many a reader : "Remember, my dear child,' says Mrs. Cooper to him, after one of his visits to Yarmouth, wherever you go, and whatever you do, that the happiness of your parents depends on the principles and conduct of their children. Remember also, I entreat, and may your conversation be influenced by the remembrance, that there are subjects which ought always to be considered as sacred, and on no account to be treated with levity.'"-(P. 96.) "His manners and appearance at this period were winning and agreeable. Although only sixteen years of age, his figure, which had advanced to nearly its full stature, was no less distinguished for the elegance of its proportions, than its healthy manliness of character; his handsome and expressive countenance was illumined by the generous disposition and active mind, equally characteristic of him then as in after life; his conversation was brisk and animated, his voice and manner of address were in the highest degree pleasing and gentlemanly; while a soft and graceful ease, attendant on every action, rendered his society no less agreeable than his appearance prepossessing." (P. 90.) The period of his arrival in London had been of course fixed with reference to the opening of the professional season--viz. in the month of October, when the lectures on medicine, surgery, anatomy, physiology, and their kindred sciences, commence at the hospitals, and, in some few instances, elsewhere. Mr. Cline's house was in Jeffrey's square, at St. Mary Axe, in the eastern part of the metropolis; and in that house Mr. Astley Cooper afterwards began himself to practise. His propensities for fun and frivolity burst out afresh the moment that he was established in his new quarters; and for some time he seemed on the point of being sucked into the vortex of dissipation, to perish in it. He quickly found himself in the midst of a host of young companions similarly disposed with himself, and began to indulge in those extravagances which had earned him notoriety in the country. One of his earlest adventures was the habiting himself in the uniform of an officer, and swaggering in it about town. One day, while thus masquerading, he lit upon his uncle in Bond Street; and, finding it too late to escape, he resolved to brazen the matter out. Mr. Cooper at once addressed him very sternly on his foolish conduct, but was thunderstruck at the reception which he met with. Why,' said Mr. Cooper, 'you don't mean to say that you are not my nephew, Astley Cooper?' Really, sir, I have not the pleasure of knowing any such person. My name is of the -th,' replied the young scapegrace, naming, with unflinching boldness, the regiment of which he wore the uniform. Mr. William Cooper apologised, although still unable to feel assured he was not being duped, and, bowing, passed on."-(P. 401.) As soon as the lecture-rooms were opened, young Cooper made a show of attention, but without feeling any real interest in them. His uncle, at the same time, (2d Oct., 1784,) proposed him as a member of the Physical Society, into which, on the 16th of the same month, he was admitted. This was the oldest and most distinguished society of the kind in London, numbering among its supporters and frequenters nearly all the leading members of the profession, who communicated and discussed topics on professional subjects at its meetings. The rules were very strict and we find our newly admitted friend infringing them on the very first meeting ensuing that on which he had been introduced, as appears by the following entry in the journal of the society-"October 23d, 1784. Mr. &c., in the chair. Messrs. Astley Cooper, &c., &c., fined sixpence each, for leaving the room without permission of the president.* It is hardly to be wondered at that so young and inexperienced a person should have found attendance at the meetings of the society very irksome; the matters discussed being necessarily beyond his comprehension. We find, therefore, that during the first session he was continually fined for non-attendance. The first paper which he communicated was, singularly enough, on cancer in the breast-a subject to which, throughout his life, he paid great attention, and on which he was earnestly engaged when death terminated his labors. Whether he had selected this subject himself, or any one else had suggested it, does not appear; but the coincidence is curious and interesting. A very few months after Astley's introduction to the profession, he found the yoke of his stern and rigid uncle too heavy for him, and, in compliance with his own request, he was transferred as a pupil to Mr. Cline, at the ensuing Christmas (1784.) From that moment his character and conduct underwent a signal change for the better. This was partly to be traced to the stimulus which he derived from the superior † Ib. i. p. 107. * Vol. i. p. 106. fame of his new teacher, and the engaging character of his instructions and professional example. Certain, however, it is, that Astley Cooper had become quite a new man. 'After six months," says he himself,* "I was articled to Mr. Cline; and now I began to go into the dissecting-room, and acquire knowledge, though still in a desultory way. His biographer states that "Astley Cooper seems at once to have thrown away his idleness, and all those trifling pursuits which had seduced him from his studies; and at the same time to have devoted himself to the acquisition of professional knowledge, as well by diligent labor in the dissecting-room, as by serious attention to the lectures on anatomy, and other subjects of study in the hospitals." He had, at this time, barely entered his seventeenth year; and such was the rapidity of his progress that, by the ensuing spring (1785) he had become as distinguished for industry as formerly he had been notorious for idleness, and had obtained a knowledge of anatomy far surpassing that of any fellow-student of his own standing. His biographer institutes an interesting comparison between Astley Cooper and the great John Hunter, at the period of their respectively commencing their professional studies. Both of them threatened, by their idle and dissipated conduct, to ruin their prospects, and blight the hopes of their friends; both, however, quickly reformed, and became preeminent for their devotion to the acquisition of professional knowledge, exhibiting many points of similarity in their noble pursuit of science. Astley Cooper, however, never disgraced his superior birth and station, by the coarser species of dissipation in which it would seem that the illustrious Hunter had once indulged--for illustrious indeed, as a physiologist and anatomist, was John Hunter; a powerful and original thinker, and an indefatigable searcher after physical truth. Mr. Cline had the merit of being one of the earliest to appreciate the views of this distinguished philosopher, whose doctrines were long in making their way § and Mr. Cline's sagacious opinion on this subject, exercised a marked and beneficial influence on the mind of his gifted pupil, Astley Cooper. During Astley Cooper's second year of professional study, (1785-6,) he continued to make extraordinary rapid progress in the study of anatomy, to which he had devoted himself with increasing energy; and his efforts, and 1849.] SIR ASTLEY COOPER. his progress, attracted the attention of all who came within his sphere of action. From a very early period he saw, either by his own sagacity, or through that of his skillful and experienced tutor, Mr. Cline, that an exact and familiar knowledge of anatomy was the only solid foundation on which to rest the superstructure of surgical skill. "We now find him," says his biographer, "devoting himself with the most earnest activity to the acquisition of a knowledge of anatomy-one of the most valuable departments of study to which the younger student can devote himself, and without a thorough knowledge of which, professional practice, whether in the hands of the surgeon or physician, can be little better than mere empiricism. The intense application which Astley Cooper devoted to this pursuit, in the early years of his pupilage, was not only useful, inas much as it furnished him with a correct knowledge of the structure of the human frame, the form and situation of its various parts, and the varieties in position to which they are occasionally liable; but it paved the way for those numerous discoveries made by him in pathological anatomy,' which have always been, and must continue to be, the sources of so many advantages in the practice of our profession."-pp. 117, Mr. Cline; but he was extremely unpopular Feeling the ground pretty firm beneath him that he had already "become an efficient anatomist," he began to attend Mr. Cline in his visits to the patients in the hospital; exhibiting a watchful scrutiny on every such occasion, making notes of the cases, and seizing every opportunity which presented itself of testing the accuracy of Mr. Cline's and his own conclusions, by means of postmortem examinations. At the Physical Society, also, he had turned over quite a new leaf, being absent at only one meeting during the session, and taking so active a part in the business of the society, that he was chosen one of the managing committee. At the close of his second session, viz: in the summer of 1780, he went home, as usual, to "There is scarcely any science, in the early study of which constant advice is so much required as in the study of anatomy. The textures which it is the business of the young anatomist to unravel, are so delicate and complicated; the filaments composing them so fine, and yet so im-Yarmouth, and was received by his exulting portant; that in following them from their sources to their places of destination, and tracing their various connections, he is constantly in danger of overlooking or destroying some, and becoming bewildered in the investigation and pursuit of others. To direct and render assistance to the inexperienced student under these difficulties, it is the custom for one or more accomplished anatomists, demonstrators as they are styled, to be constantly at hand."-pp. 119, 120. * Vol. i. p. 119. VOL. XVII. NO. II. 17 parents and friends with all the admiration which the rising young surgeon could have desired. His mother thus expresses herself in one of her letters to him at this time, in terms which the affectionate son must have cherished as precious indeed: "I cannot express the delight you gave your father and me, my dearest Astley, by the tenderness of your attentions, and the variety of your attainments. You seem to have improved every moment of your time, and to have soared not only beyond our expectations, but to the utmost height of our wishes. How much did it gratify me to observe the very great resemblance in person and subjected to a similar process. After the lapse of a few weeks, the ill-fated animal was killed, the vessels injected, and preparations were made from each of the limbs.”—p. 142. It is impossible to peruse this paragraph without feelings of pain, akin to disgust, and even horror. The poor animal, which had trusted to the mercy, as it were to the honor and humanity, of man-was dealt with as though it had been a mere mass of inanimate matter! One's feelings revolt from the whole procedure: but the question after all is, whether reason and the necessity of the case, afford any justification for such an act. If not, then it will be difficult, as the reader will hereafter see, to vindicate the memory of Sir Astley Cooper from the charge of systematic barbarity. On this subject, however, we shall content ourselves, for the present, with giving two passages from the work under consideration-one expressing very forcibly and closely the opinions of Mr. Bransby Cooper, the other those of an eminent physician and friend of Mr. Cooper, Dr. Blundell: During his sojourn in the country, he seems to have devoted himself zealously to the acquisition of professional knowledge, and to have formed an acquaintance with an able fellow-student, Mr. Holland, who in the ensuing year became his companion at Mr. Cline's, at whose residence they prosecuted their anatomical studies with the utmost zeal and system. During this session, Astley Cooper found time, amidst all his harassing engagements, to attend a course of lectures, delivered by John Hunter, near Leicester square. It required no slight amount of previous training and scientific acquisition, to follow the illustrious lecturer through his deep, novel, and comprehensive disquisitions, enhanced as the difficulty was by his imperfect and unsatisfactory mode of expression and delivery. Nothing, however, could withstand the determination of Astley Cooper, who devoted all the powers of his mind to mastering the doctrines enunciated by Hunt-ries proved erroneous or correct, new facts brought er, and confirming their truth by his own dissections. The results were such as to afford satisfaction to the high-spirited student for the remainder of his life; but of these matters we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. During this session, he caught the gaol-fever from a capital convict whom he visited in Newgate, and, but for the affectionate attentions of Mr. Cline and his family, would, in all probability, have sunk under the attack. As soon as he could be safely removed, he was carried to his native county, and in a month or two's time was restored to health. "By this means only," says Mr. Cooper, speaking of experiments on living animals, "are theo to light, important discoveries made in physiology, and sounder doctrines and more scientific modes of treatment arrived at. Nor is this all; for the surgeon's hand becomes tutored to act with steadiral abhorrence of giving pain to the subject of ness, while he is under the influence of the natuexperiment, and he himself is thus schooled for the severer ordeal of operating on the human frame. I may mention another peculiar advantage in proof of the necessity of such apparent cruelty-that no practising on the dead body can accustom the mind of the surgeon to the physical phenomena presented to his notice in operations on the living. The detail of the various differences which exist under the two circumstances need hardly be explained, as there are few minds to which they will not readily present themselves." 66 It was during this session that he seems to have commenced his experiments on living-p. 144. animals, for the purpose of advancing anatomical and physiological knowledge. The following incident we shall give in the lanof Mr. Holland, the companion above guage alluded to, of Astley Cooper : "I recollect one day being out with him, when a dog followed us, and accompanied us home, little foreseeing the fate that awaited him. He was confined for a few days, till we had ascertained that no owner would come to claim him, and then brought up to be the subject of various operations. The first of these was the tying one of the femoral arteries. When poor Chance, for so we appropriately named the dog, was sufficiently recovered from this, one of the humeral arteries was They who object," says Dr. Blundell," to the putting of animals to death for a scientific purpose, do not reflect that the death of an animal is a very different thing from that of man. To an animal, death is an eternal sleep; to man, it is the commencement of a new and untried state of existence. . . . Shall it be said that the objects of physiological science are not worth the sacrifice of a few animals! Men are constantly forming the most erroneous estimates of the comparative importance of objects in this world. Of what importance is it now to mankind whether Antony or Augustus filled the Imperial chair? And what will it matter, a few centuries hence, whether England or France swept the ocean with her fleets? But mankind will always be equally interested in the great truths deducible from science, |