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.

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    fthft into whose body he was plunging his instruments, that he could not de- scribe the cause of the difficulty—that he could not ascertain the cause of the difficulty—the patient himself, at the same time, imploring to be loosened, and yet, in opposition to the patient's cries, and to his repeated entreaties to be unbound, still the operator kept him upon the table, and pertinaciously persisted in his attempt to extract the stone, although, from his own statement, he had no probability or chance of extracting it, even in a week or in a month, not knowing where the difficulty existed—not knowing what part was mal-formed, because he said he could not feel it with the forceps, although he could feel it with the sound through the urethra, and even through the wound in the perinaeum. This, Gentlemen, brings me, for a moment, to speak of the patient. You have heard much to-day of what my conduct must have been, to have pub- lished a report of this description, when I entertained no animosity towards the man, and no attempt, whatever, has been made to shew that I do enter- tain any malice against Mr. Cooper, and God knows I do not, for I believe a more worthy man and belter man, in all the social relations of life, does not exist; but I am not dealing with him as an individual, but as a public func- tionary, as a public servant, and it is in that capacity alone I attack him, and I do attack his professional capacity as a surgeon, and as a surgeon at Guy's Hospital. Well, Gentlemen, we have heard much of the reputation of Mr. Bransby Cooper, but I think the learned Counsel, when he was using the word as ap- plied to that gentlemen, had entirely forgotten the satire of Iago : Reputa- tion is an idle and most false imposition, oft got without merit, and lost with- out deserving. I knew not that Mr. Bransby Cooper had ever acquired re- putation as a surgeon. I never heard of his reputation as a surgeon; and it has been my painful duty in the Lancet, again and again, to complain of Mr. Cooper's conduct as a surgeon in Guy's Hospital, although, on one occa- sion, it was stated, at least the fact was stated, that he had performed the operation of tying the subclavian artery in a masterly manner, and it gave me the greatest possible pleasure to communicate that fact to the public. But, as so much has been said of the reputation of Mr. Bransby Cooper, let me ask you what you have heard respecting the miseries of the individual on whom the operation was performed ? Not one word has escaped the lips of the Counsel on that subject, not one word has escaped the lips of any of Mr. Cooper's witnesses on that subject. No, Gentlemen, they are, for the greater part, hospital surgeons. They know too well what the patients of our hospi- tals are in the habit of enduring at their hands to feel for this man, or any other man placed in a similar situation. Gentlemen, I should like to know upon what principle it was that the man was kept bound upon the table when he implored to be loosened. Was not he a free agent? He knew what the sufferings arising from the stone were, and he had but a too horrid experience of what the sufferings arising from the operation were. He chose. He was anxious to choose the lesser evil; he said, For God's sake let me go; imploring to go, I pray you let me go, let it keep in. No, says the operator, I will not let it keep in. I must remove the stone. My re-