Astley Cooper | |
|---|---|
 Astley Cooper byThomas Lawrence | |
| Born | 23 August 1768 (1768-08-23) Brooke, Norfolk, England |
| Died | 12 February 1841 (1841-02-13) (aged 72) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | St. Thomas' Hospital |
| Known for | otology vascular surgery humananatomy |
| Awards | Copley Medal (1801) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | anatomy |
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st BaronetGCH FRS (23 August 1768 – 12 February 1841) was a Britishsurgeon andanatomist, who made contributions tootology,vascular surgery, theanatomy andpathology of themammary glands andtesticles, and the pathology and surgery ofhernia.[1]
Born at Brooke Hall inBrooke, Norfolk on 23 August 1768 and baptised at St. Peter's Church, Brooke,[2]on 9 September,[3]Astley Cooper was the son of the Rev Dr Samuel Cooper, aclergyman of theChurch of England; his motherMaria Susanna Cooper née Bransby[4]wrote several epistolary novels.[5]At the age of sixteen he was sent to London and placed underHenry Cline (1750–1827), surgeon toSt Thomas' Hospital. From the first he devoted himself to the study ofanatomy, and had the privilege of attending the lectures ofJohn Hunter. In 1789 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at St Thomas' Hospital, where in 1791 he became joint lecturer with Cline in anatomy andsurgery, and in 1800 he was appointed surgeon toGuy's Hospital on the death of his uncle, William Cooper.[6]
Astley Cooper received theCopley Medal in 1801 for two papers read before theRoyal Society of London on the destruction of thetympanic membrane.[7][8]In February 1802 or February 1805 he was elected aFellow of the Society.[9][10][11][need quotation to verify]
In 1805 he took an active part in the formation of theMedical and Chirurgical Society of London and was its President in 1819. In 1804 he brought out the first, and in 1807 the second, part of his great work onhernia, which added so largely to his reputation that in 1813 his annual professional income rose to 21,000 pounds sterling. In the same year he was appointed professor ofcomparative anatomy to theRoyal College of Surgeons and was very popular as a lecturer.[6]
In 1817 Cooper performed his famous operation of tying the abdominal aorta for aneurysm; and in 1820 he removed an infected wen (in more modern terminology, asebaceous cyst) from the scalp of KingGeorge IV.[12][13]About six months afterwards he received abaronetcy, which, as he had no son, was to descend to his nephew and adopted son, Astley Cooper.[6][14] He was appointed sergeant surgeon to George IV in 1828.[1] He served as president of theRoyal College of Surgeons in 1827 and again in 1836, and he was elected a vice-president of theRoyal Society in 1830.[6] In 1821, he was elected a foreign member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He died on 12 February 1841 in London, and is interred, by his own desire, in the crypt of the Chapel of Thomas Guy,St Thomas Street (on the site now shared byKing's College London andGuy's Hospital).[15] A statue byEdward Hodges Baily was erected inSt Paul's Cathedral.[16]
Cooper lived atGadebridge House in the market town ofHemel Hempstead.[17] Due to his influence and vigorous lobbying, supported by other residents of the area, a railway line was constructed in the 1830s by theLondon and Birmingham Railway to the south of the town[18]instead of directly through it. This led to the citizens of Hemel Hempstead having no railway station in their town.[19]
The importance of Sir Astley Cooper is remembered with a number of street names (Astley Cooper Place in the village of his birth, Brooke, Norfolk; Astley Road and Paston Road in Hemel Hempstead), and withThe Astley Cooper School, formerly Grove Hill School, but renamed after him in 1984.[20][dead link][21]
In the field ofvascular surgery andcerebral circulation, Cooper was the first to demonstrate experimentally the effects of bilateralligation of the carotid arteries in dogs and to propose treatment ofaneurysms by ligation of the vessel. In 1805 he published in the first volume ofMedico-Chirurgical Transactions, an account of his attempt to tie the commoncarotid artery for treating an aneurysm in a patient. In 1808 he tried the same with theexternal iliac artery for a femoral aneurysm and in 1817 he ligated theaorta for an iliac aneurysm.[22]
Cooper was an anatomist and identified several previously undescribed anatomical structures, many of which were named after him:
He also described a number of new diseases, which likewise became eponymous:
His chief published works were:
Astley Cooper's baptismal entry from the register of St. Peter's Church, Brooke.
His birthday was the 23rd of August, 1768, and he was baptized, as appears by the parish register, on the 9th day of the following month. His godfather was Sir Edward Astley, at that time member for the county [...].
Maria Susanna Cooper was a daughter of James Bransby of Shottiston, Norfolk, and married Samuel Cooper (1739-1800), who was the son of Samuel Cooper, surgeon in Norwich, and brother to William Cooper, surgeon in Guy's Hospital, London.
[...] the father and mother of Sir Astley Cooper, - the Rev. Samuel Cooper, eighteen years minister of Yarmouth, and Maria Susanna Bransby, his wife, both authors of many publications now forgotten.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cooper, Sir Astley Paston".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 79.Awarded in 1801
Astley Paston Cooper
For his Papers - on the effects which take place from the destruction of the Membrana Tympani of the Ear; with an account of an operation for the removal of a particular species of Deafness.
In the year 1800, he laid before the Royal Society his views with respect to the influence on audition, of perforation of the membrana tympani, and, in the following year, a second paper entitled 'Further observations on the effects which take place from the destruction of the membrana tympani; with an account of an operation for the removal of a particular species of deafness.' [...]
In the month of February, 1802, Mr Cooper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
In February 1805, Astley Cooper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The fame of Astley Cooper spread rapidly and it was only natural that in 1820 King George IV chose him to treat an infected sebaceous cyst of the scalp. The intervention was successful.
An excellent notion of the fears which surgeons entertained in regard to secondary complications after the removal of wens is furnished by the case of George IV., who had a sebaceous cyst on the top of his head. This formed the subject of a serious consultation attended by Cline, Astley Cooper, Brodie, and others. Eventually Cooper, with Cline's assistance, removed the wen [...].
The line, as originally laid out, was to have [...] passed through Cashiobury and Grove Parks, the seats of Lord Essex and Lord Clarendon, and along the Hemel Hempstead and Little Goddesden valleys, in Hertfordshire. This latter portion of the project excited a vehement opposition on the part of the landowners, who formed a powerful confederacy against the bill. The principal parties who took and active part in the opposition were Lady Bridgewater and her trustees, Lord Essex and Sir Astley Cooper, supported by the Grand Junction Canal Company. By their influence the landowners throughout the counties of Hertford and Buckingham were completely organized in opposition to the measure. [...] Public meetings were held in most of the districts through which the line was projected to pass, under the presidency of the nobility and gentry, when it was unanimously determined that railways were wholly unnecessary. [...] The Hemel Hempstead and Goddesden valleys were [...] avoided, and the line proceeded by the towns of Berkhampstead and Tring.
The Astley Cooper School is an English 11-18 comprehensive school on the edge of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, England. [...] The school was established in 1984 following a merger of two local schools, Grove Hill School and Highfield School. It occupies the former Grove Hill site on St Agnells Lane.
| Baronetage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title | Baronet (of Gadebridge) 1821–1841 | Succeeded by Astley Paston Cooper |