Astley Cooper

For other people named Astley Cooper, seeAstley Cooper (disambiguation).

Sir Astley Cooper BtGCHFRS
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
Known for	otology vascular surgery humananatomy
Awards	Copley Medal(1801)
Scientific career
Fields	anatomy

Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st BaronetGCHFRS(23 August 1768 – 12 February 1841) was a Britishsurgeonandanatomist,who made contributions tootology,vascular surgery,theanatomyandpathologyof themammary glandsandtesticles,and the pathology and surgery ofhernia.

Life

Astley Paston Cooper

Cooper was born at Brooke Hall inBrooke, Norfolkon 23 August 1768 and baptised at the parish church on 9 September. His father, the Rev Dr Samuel Cooper, was aclergymanof theChurch of England;his motherMaria Susanna Bransbywas the author of several novels. 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 Hospitalon the death of his uncle, William Cooper.

In 1802 Cooper received theCopley Medalfor two papers read before theRoyal Societyof London on the destruction of thetympanic membraneand was elected aFellow of that societythe same year.In 1805 he took an active part in the formation of theMedical and Chirurgical Society of London,and 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 anatomyto theRoyal College of Surgeonsand was very popular as a lecturer.

In 1817 Cooper performed his famous operation of tying the abdominal aorta for aneurysm; and in 1820 he removed an infectedsebaceous cystfrom the head ofGeorge IV.About six months afterwards he received abaronetcy,which, as he had no son, was to descend to his nephew and adopted son, Astley Cooper.He was appointed sergeant surgeon to George IV in 1828.He served as president of theRoyal College of Surgeonsin 1827 and again in 1836, and he was elected a vice-president of theRoyal Societyin 1830.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 LondonandGuy's Hospital).A statue byEdward Hodges Bailywas erected inSt Paul's Cathedral.

Cooper lived atGadebridge Housein the market town ofHemel Hempstead.Due to his influence, among others who were also residents of the area, his vigorous lobbying ensured that theLondon to Birmingham main railway linewas constructed to the south of the town instead of through it, a more natural course. This led to the citizens of Hemel Hempstead having no railway station in their town.

Today, Cooper is remembered in the area with a number of local street names (Astley Cooper Place in the village of his birth, Brooke, Norfolk), (Astley Road and Paston Road in Hemel Hempstead), andThe Astley Cooper School,formerly Grovehill school, being renamed after him in 1984.

Works

In the field ofvascular surgeryandcerebral circulation,Cooper was the first to demonstrate experimentally the effects of bilateralligationof the carotid arteries in dogs and to propose treatment ofaneurysmsby ligation of the vessel. In 1805 he published in the first volume ofMedico-Chirurgical Transactions,an account of his attempt to tie the commoncarotid arteryfor treating an aneurysm in a patient. In 1808 he tried the same with theexternal iliac arteryfor a femoral aneurysm and in 1817 he ligated theaortafor an iliac aneurysm.

Statue of Cooper, St Paul's Cathedral, London byEdward Hodges Baily

Cooper was an anatomist and identified several previously undescribed anatomical structures, many of which were named after him:

• Cooper's fascia,a covering of thespermatic cord.
• Cooper's pubic ligament,the superiorpubic ligament.
• Cooper's stripes,a fibrous structure in theulnarligaments.
• Cooper's ligaments,thesuspensory ligaments of the breasts.

He also described a number of new diseases, which likewise became eponymous:

• Cooper's testis(neuralgiaof thetesticles)
• Cooper's disease(benigncystsof the breast)
• Cooper's hernia(retroperitoneal hernia)
• Cooper's neuralgia(neuralgia of the breast)

His chief published works were:

• Anatomy and Surgical Treatment of Hernia(1804–1807);
• Dislocations and Fractures(1822);
• Lectures on Surgery(1824–1827);
• Illustrations of Diseases of the Breast(1829);
• Anatomy of the Thymus Gland(1832);
• Anatomy of the Breast(1840).

Many of Cooper's original experimental and surgical specimens are now held in the collections of theGordon Museum of Pathology.

See also

• Pathology
• List of pathologists

Sources

• Brock, Russell Claude(1952).The life and work of Astley Cooper.
• Burch, Druin (2007).Digging Up the Dead: Uncovering the Life and Times of an Extraordinary Surgeon.
• Cooper, B. B.(1843).Life of Sir A. Cooper.J.W. Parker.

Further reading

• Mansel, Robert E.; Sweetland, Helen M.; Hughes, L. E., eds. (2009)."History of benign breast disease".Hughes, Mansel & Webster's Benign Disorders and Diseases of the Breast(3rd ed.). Elsevier Health Sciences. pp. 7–10.ISBN9780702027741.

External links

• Astley Paston Cooper biography.WhoNamedIt.
• Sir Astley Paston CooperHistory of Surgeons from surgeons.org.uk.
• Sir Astley Cooper.Surgical-Tutor.
• On the anatomy of the breast, 1840.Digital reproduction of the book.
• "Archival material relating to Astley Cooper".UK National Archives.
• Sir Astley Paston Cooper and Hoo Loo