Report of the trial, Cooper versus Wakley, for libel / from the notes of W.B. Gurney ; with remarks on the evidence, by Bransby B. Cooper.

  • Cooper, Bransby Blake, 1792-1853.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the trial, Cooper versus Wakley, for libel / from the notes of W.B. Gurney ; with remarks on the evidence, by Bransby B. Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    164/190 (page 156)
    166 Mr. Callaway should be appointed assistant surgeon. John Hunter used to say that bad surgeons were like bad clerks, they made work one for another; and that good surgeons in fact would starve, if it was not for unskilful ones. It seems that John Hunter's axiom had found its way into Guy's Hospital; for, presuming upon what the operations of Mr. Bransby Cooper would be, it was thought to be necessary to elect a consulting surgeon and an assistant surgeon at the same time, to do the additional work. I can give no other explanation of the three appointments on the same day, because the contem- poraries of Mr. Bransby Cooper were young men. When there were two old men and one young man there was no assistant surgeon and no consult- ing surgeon. Therefore, Gentlemen, taking all the circumstances into consideration, and viewing it simply as a matter between Mr. Cooper and the governors of Guy's Hospital, and not as a matter between the public and Guy's Hospital; you must perceive and believe you can come to no other conclusion than that it was entirely owing to the relationship in which Mr. Cooper stood to Guy's Hospital that he was elected to the office of surgeon there. In the ab- sence of testimonials, would he ever have been in that office, had he not been related to Sir Astley Cooper? It is a question which I wish you all to ask yourselves, and, having asked yourselves, I am certain I shall be perfectly well satisfied with the answer that you will give. Something has been said relative to advertisements, that they could not sa- tisfy me or please me, unless advertisements were inserted, unless advertise- ments sent to the Lancet, or some other medical journal or newspaper. Gentlemen, it is considered, I have always heard so, that you have a greater chance of getting men of talent from a large number of individuals, than from a small number, and I think that the offices in Guy's Hospital would be much belter filled, if the profession generally knew when those offices became va- cant, and that men of talent, ability, and industry, had an opportunity of coming forward to offer themselves to fill those offices. Men of experience, men of learning, men who have not to learn their profession, and learn it up- on the misfortunes of their fellow creatures, but men who have acquired it by a regular course of study, and go there in all the plenitude of information, and in the fullest enjoyment of the greatest intellectual powers. We all know that individuals are stimulated to become more industrious and more anxious to qualify themselves for the duties of their profession, in the hope of attaining the highest possible station, and the greatest quantity of emolument, and the largest portion of honour; but, how can such things be done, if the practices now tolerated in Guy's Hospital, and the system of elections is to be continued; it is impossible—such a thing can never happen at any institution, much less an institution so extensive as that; it should have officers of as much ability as if those officers were elected from the great body of the medical profession. I wish now, Gentlemen, to direct your attention more particularly to the facts of the case, because if these facts remain uncontradicted, then, I believe,