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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    to far as to examine the parts. The patient died in the space of a day or two afterwards; and I now present to you a part of the case, to which I crave your attention. Upon examining the parts, the demonstrator of Mr. Cooper, an exceedingly clever and ingenious young man, examined the perinseum. Though I should first mention, that, in the course of the operation, Mr. Cal- laway, who is admitted by the Defendant to be a man of competent skill, the assistant surgeon, and admitted by Mr. Lee, the potato-merchant, to be a man who must understand, the next best to the operator, the course of proceeding, Mr. Callaway had himself, in the course of the operation, thrust his finger in to see if it could reach the bladder. He ascertained that it could not, and that Mr. Cooper was right. I should tell you, it is an utter calumny, an utter ' falsehood, to say that any force or violence was used. Mr. Callaway, who held the staff, will tell you, and tell you distinctly, that to apply the term violence to it, in any sense, is a gross and calumnious exaggeration; that he had no doubt from the very beginning that the forceps had entered the blad- der, and that the operation was proceeding with the utmost skill. The body was opened, and the demonstrator went from curiosity, nobody then expect- ing there would be an edition of this kind, and applied his finger in the wound of the dead body, to ascertain whether he could reach the bladder. He ascer- tained that he could not—that the perinaeum was deep. He could not put it through the prostate gland into the bladder. Doctor Hodgkin, the anatomist, did not think it was a deep perinaeum, in proportion to the size of the man; but it is an utter falsehood to say that it was not so deep but that a man's finger might reach the bladder; if he has given any opinion upon the subject, it is that the perinaeum was not deep for a man of his size, which was rather large. The wounds in the bladder were found precisely to correspond with the history I have given you, and with what the operator had intended to effect, with the exception that possibly a very small slip in the second inci- sion with Sir Astley Cooper's knife had been made, because it had not exactly hit the very line of the original wound, but a matter not of the slightest im- portance to the operation, or to the safety of the patient, and which was natu- ral, and which every surgeon would expect to take place. In the next place, there is between the bladder and the rectum a cellular membrane, which, in cases of diseased kidnies, or any inflammation con- nected with these parts, becomes, after death, easily lacerable, so that you may easily insert the finger. But you will have it from those who saw it, that the parts were united—that there had been no separation whatever—that the union was perfectly sound; and it is impossible for any man, who pretends to the slightest knowledge of surgery, who saw it, to entertain a doubt of that fact. Well, the man's kidnies were diseased, and in a considerable state of di'sease. It was plain that that had contributed, combined with the operation, to put an end to his life. It might have put an end to his life without the operation; the pain of body might have done it. When Mr. Lambert was in the room, Dr. Hodgkin made an observation, which when made, nobody suspected any thing wrong. Dr. Hodgkin found that the cellular membrane was lacerable. The parts were taken up by Mr. Lambert Dr Hodgkin turned his back; and then Mr. Lambert says to him,