Bransby Blake Cooper (1792-1853)

Six autograph letters to various correspondents, signed or in the third person, by Bransby Blake Cooper, nephew of Sir Astley Paston Cooper.

1835-1851

1 file

Purchased from Sotheby's, London 1930, Stevens, London 1931. Accessions 56370, 56474, 72300

Bransby Blake Cooper (1792-1853) was the nephew of eminent surgeon Sir Astley Paston Cooper. Having decided to follow his uncle into surgery, Bransby Cooper became President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh in 1817. Shortly afterwards he caused controversy when he was appointed to the chair of anatomy at St Thomas's Hospital by Sir Astley, the governors having not consented to to this appointment. The treasurer of Guy's hospital, Mr Harrison, responded by setting up a new medical school, appointing Bransby Cooper to the chair of anatomy. In 1828 he sued the editor of the Lancet, Thomas Wakely, for libel after the Lancet printed an eyewitness account of an operation where Cooper had taken nearly an hour to remove a bladder stone from a patient, who then died the following day. Wakely castigated him for his incompetence, saying that he would not be in a position of such responsibility were he not the nephew of Sir Astley. Of the £2000 damages asked for, he won just £100. Despite this controversy, Bransby Cooper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. In 1843 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1848 was unanimously elected onto the Council. In 1849 he was appointed to the Chair of Surgery at Guy's, where he remained until his death in August 1853.

At Wellcome Collection: The Hodgkin family collection (PP/HO) contains a letter written by Cooper namely Cooper at PP/HO/D/A1454 See also Perfecting the world : the life and times of Dr. Thomas Hodgkin 1798-1866 by Amalie M. Kass & Edward H. Kass (Boston : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), for a description of events surrounding the court case

Material formerly held in the Western Manuscripts Department's Autograph Letters Sequence.