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brings out the bottle, and persuades his wife to take a drop," to the last, where the "Bottle has done its work; it has destroyed the infant and the mother, made the father a maniac, and brought the son and daughter to the streets," the interest excited is very intense and dramatically kept up; indeed the dramatic turn of the plates was at once perceived, and a piece was produced at the theatres, with tableaux of the plates.

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tion and the Royal Academy; many of these pictures possessed much humour, among which may be mentioned "Disturbing a Congregation," "Dressing for the Day," "A New Servant and a Deaf Mistress," &c.

The great success which has attended the career of the artist we have been considering, is to be attributed not only to his genius, which in the particular branch of art to which he addressed himself, is undoubtedly great, nor to a playful fancy and an imagination of almost exhaustless fertility, but in a great measure to an industry which never tired, and a determined punctu

given, but a perfect list is probably unattainable, and a complete collection equally so. One which is far from perfect, and was advertised for sale some time ago, filled a good sized cart, when taken to its destination; the artist himself has not prints of the whole of his works, which certainly might have been expected. Another great source of success is the dramatic effect and arrangement of Cruikshank's productions; he himself, we believe, attributes a great deal of popularity to this quality, in fact, he seems personally to have a great deal of dramatic art, and when Mr. Dickens and other littérateurs, for purposes mentioned in the life of that gentleman (Biog. Mag., vol. 2) organized a corps of actors, Mr. Cruikshank was recognised as one of the most capable and most successful.

The work made a very great sensation, and was so successful that in the following year the artist produced a sequel, in which the career of the son and daughter of the drunkard was. followed up. One plate therein was re-ality which never failed. His immense markably appalling, the suicide of the industry would be testified even by the unfortunate girl, who in a fit of despair incomplete list of works which we have plunges from Waterloo Bridge. In studying for these works, the scenes he witnessed, together with the arguments of some of the leading tee-total advocates, amongst whom he was thrown, produced in the artist's mind a conviction that a total abstinence from intoxicating drinks, is the sole effectual plan for producing a reformation in the lower classes of society. He therefore joined that cause, and has since become the leading and most noticeable advocate of the Tee-totalers. He is at present engaged in producing a pamphlet, called The Glass," the vignette on the title of which, a skeleton hand holding a glass, frothing with serpents, in allusion to the Scriptural motto underneath, is very appropriate and striking. The determination which led the artist to this step, must not, however, be deemed sudden; for in his earlier works a vein It has been the habit of the artist to of moral reproof against the evils of relieve the lassitude occasioned by indrunkenness is traceable, in his "Sunday cessant application to his art by various in London," "The Gin Shop," "The athletic exercises, fencing, rowing, and Upas Tree," and "The Gin Juggernaut." even boxing. He used at one time to Since the appearance of the "Bottle," make little of rowing up to Richmond and its Sequel, Cruikshank has illus- and back, and is generally skilful in trated several works-"The Greatest those exercises which he wisely indulgPlague in Life," "How to Marry," and ed in to keep in health. His appeara work bearing on the crowded state of ance is somewhat remarkable of the London, during the Exhibition, called, middle height, and very broad shoulder"The Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. ed, a piercing eye, and a kind of fixed Sandboys," which was unsuccessful. He look, a fine forehead, and a face surhas lately furnished illustrations to an rounded with whiskers somewhat of the edition of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," pub-wildest, give him "a presence which is lished by Mr. John Cassel, which, how-not to be put by." Mr. Cruikshank has ever, cannot be classed amongst his hap- been twice married, but has no chilpiest efforts.

He has latterly turned his attention to oil painting, and has contributed to the Exhibitions of the British Institu

dren. Although by no means a young man, the energy and determination of the artist, kept up no doubt by his excellent constitution and abstemious

habits, have scarcely abated. He seeks | he should offend none personally. He admission as a student to the Royal attacked the vice and not the men. He Academy, and determines, we believe, ardent as Cicero, when at sixty he learnt Greek, to turn his talents to a new field.

The talent which he possesses has certainly never been abused. Whilst he was making the people laugh, he was generally teaching them. He has carefully avoided anything which could even by implication sanction vice. He has assailed sin in the palace equally as in the cottage, and it is great praise to say that although in his younger days he caricatured those in power, he has since refused a great price for work which would cost him little labour because

is no mere caricaturist, he is that and
something more; he has the higher
qualities of an originator and of an in-
ventor, and moreover is a moral teacher,
which Gilray or Rowlandson seldom or
never attained to. His greatest praise
is that he seems ever to have worked
with the knowledge that he must some-
day give an account for the use of the
power granted him; he has therefore
attained position, fame, and independ-
ence by the use, not abuse of his genius,
and long may he live to enjoy that
which he has acquired.
JAS. H. F.

SIR ASTLEY COOPER.

therefrom in the way of instruction.

To all who feel a curiosity about emi- | sympathies of the general reader, there nent men of their own country and is much in our opinion to be educed time, in whatever department they may have attained their celebrity, the present brief outline of the history of one, who has left behind him a reputation as a successful practical surgeon, surpassed by none-who has been reckoned, and not unjustly, one of the most instructive surgical teachers the world has ever seen, cannot, there is abundant reason to believe, fail to be acceptable. The subject, however, which occupies the few following pages, has been selected, in preference to others,-which probably on strictly professional grounds, may have superior claims upon our attention, not, because it can be af firmed with any degree of correctness, that Sir Astley Cooper was a man of genius, or even, in a high sense of the term, a man of science, or worthy of being classed with the great luminaries of his own branch of the medical profession; but simply for the reason that his career affords, probably, one of the most striking instances on record of what indefatigable industry, coupled with merely a more than ordinary amount of professional skill and intelligence, can sometimes accomplish for its possessor, in the shape of worldly fame, wealth and honours. If, therefore, there is but little to be found in the career of this remarkable man to command the admiration, and still less to enlist the

Sir Astley Cooper was born at Yelverton, in the county of Norfolk, on the 23rd of August 1768. The gentleman, who has furnished the reading world with his "Life," in a couple of somewhat formidable looking volumes, gravely assures us, that Astley's father, the Rev. Samuel Cooper, D.D., was wont to drive to the parish church of Yelverton aforesaid, of which he was the incumbent, every Sunday morning, in a coach drawn by "four powerful, long-tailed, black horses!" This equestrian display was no doubt excessively magnificent in its way, and must have hebdomadally impressed the Yelvertonians with a ponderously solemn sense of the official dignity and ecclesiastical importance of their parson-but it is highly questionable that their piety was very much improved by the exhibition. As described, however, the Rev. Doctor's weekly cavalcade and appurtenances thereto attached, partakes so largely in its character of the style and taste of the modern undertaker, that it is perhaps worthy of a passing notice, if only to show that "there is nothing new under the sun." Most of our readers doubtless, like ourselves, will be still more surprised to learn, on the same authority, that the mother of Sir Astley Cooper was the veritable authoress of several novels,

friend and companion, is ascribed the selection of Sir Astley's walk in the business of life. From Sir Astley himself, however, we have it, that at Norwich, two or three years later, he chanced to visit the hospital, where he saw a Mr. Donee successfully perform the difficult operation of lithotomy; "and it was this," he says, "which inspired me with a strong impression of the utility of surgery, and led me to embark in it as my profession." An opportunity soon presented itself for his so doing.

In 1784, his uncle, Mr. William Cooper, an eminent London surgeon, and lecturer in Guy's Hospital, paid his annual visit at Dr. Cooper's parsonage, and a proposal that the nephew should be articled to himself, and accompany him to town, was unanimously approved of by the family party. To London, Astley, now in his seventeenth year, accordingly travelled, where, we gather, that, during several months, there was a pretty constant succession of squabbling in the uncle's establishment, in

smitten with the freedom and gaieties of a metropolitan life, than with the charms and attractions of anatomical science.

which are reported to have enjoyed no small reputation in her own time, and -it might perhaps have been addedamongst her own friends. Be that as it may, we fear it is beyond dispute now, that, as far as the ungrateful world is concerned, all memory of her works, however meritorious they might have been, has been cruelly suffered to perish long ago. We believe her, however, to have been both an amiable and accomplished lady; but whatever literary talent she may have possessed, Sir Astley, when a boy, seems to have inherited not a particle of the maternal love for letters. He was, like a good many other boys, who have afterwards turned out clever men, much fonder of bird's-nesting than book-reading. Blessed with an abundant flow of animal spirits, he was celebrated amongst his village compeers, only for the greater variety of puerile tricks, scrapes, and feats, in which he alternately played the part either of hero or delinquent-and is said to have found favour with no teacher, except a poor dancing French- | consequence of the nephew being more man who included the vicarage in his weekly journey. It is not necessary to our present purpose to inquire what proportion of the success of great men in after-life, is to be attributed to impulses or predilections which grow up in their boyhood, suffice it to say merely, that it is customary in modern biography to assert, that most of those who have become distinguished, either in litera-highest honours of that particular school. ture, science, or art, have in early life given strong and unmistakeable indications of their destiny; and that Mr. Bransby Cooper, in strict accordance with this stereotyped theory, traces in his "Life of Sir Astley Cooper," his uncle's choice of calling to the following incident. When Astley was but thirteen years of age, he happened one evening to call at his foster-mother's cottage, just after her son, the playfellow of his childhood, had met with a bad accident in the reaping field. The femoral artery had been cut; the poor people knew not how to arrest the hæmorrhage; life was ebbing fast away, when young Astley took a silk handkerchief from his neck, and bound it so adroitly round the limb that the flow of blood was stopped until a medical man reached the spot. To the praise which this presence of mind and cleverness of hand brought him, and still more to the pleasure he felt in saving his humble

At this period, indeed, the youth_appears to have been quite of the "Bob Sawyer" order of students, and his pranks were sufficiently numerous and indecorous, to have entitled him to the

:

With a staid, business man, like the
lecturer of Guy's Hospital, however,
such a state of things could not possibly
endure, and the connection with his
uncle received its finishing stroke from
an occurrence which is thus related :-
"One day he had obtained the uniform
of an officer, and in this disguise was
walking about town, when, on going
along Bond-street, he suddenly observed
his uncle advancing towards him. Not
having time to avoid meeting, he de-
termined to brave out the affair, should
his uncle recognise him.
for a few moments could not decide in his
mind whether it was his nephew or not;
but soon convinced that it was he, and
this, one of his pranks, he went up to
him, and commenced a somewhat angry
address about his idleness and waste of
time. Astley, regarding him with feigned
astonishment, and changing his voice,
replied that he must be making some
mistake, for he did not understand to

Mr. Cooper

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whom or to what, he was alluding. 'Why,' "It was the custom for each professor said Mr. Cooper, 'you don't mean to to receive at his own house the fees from say that you are not my nephew, Astley the new pupils. One day Dr. Gregory, thus Cooper? Really, sir, I have not the engaged, had used all his blank tickets, pleasure of knowing any such person. and was obliged to go into an adjoining My name is, of the th," replied apartment to procure another for a the young scapegrace, naming with un- student whom he left sitting in his conflinching boldness, the regiment of which sulting-room. The accumulated money he wore the uniform. Mr. William Coo- was lying on the table, and from this per apologised, although still unable to sum, as he was re-entering the room, feel assured he was not being duped, he saw the young man sweep a portion, and bowing, passed on." Soon after the and deposit it in his pocket. detection of this very theatrical piece of Gregory took his seat at the table, and, imposition, which cannot fail to remind as if nothing had occurred, filled up the our readers of a precisely similar incident ticket, and gave it to the delinquent. in Bourcicault's comedy of "London He then accompanied him to the door, Assurance," we are informed that the and, when at the threshold, with much articles of indenture were transferred emotion said to him, 'I saw what you from Mr. William Cooper to Mr. Cline. did just now; keep the money. I know This translation seems to have had what must be your distress; but, for a wonderfully salutary effect upon the God's sake, never do it again, it can youthful masquerader, and henceforth never succeed.' The pupil in vain offered his genius for adventures appears to him back the money, and the Doctor have taken quite a new turn, and dis-had the satisfaction of knowing that played itself solely in the acquisition of this moral lesson produced the desired 'subjects" for experiment. These con- impression upon his mind." sisted principally of purloined dogs, and in the "Life" already referred to, we are complacently furnished with several anecdotes of the reformed Astley's painstaking system of scientifically torturing these poor animals, which, however, with a little more respect for the feelings of our readers, we shall refrain from introducing here. Astley speedily acquired great favour with Mr. Cline for the zeal and earnestness with which he took to the practice of dissection, and erelong, under that great surgeon's tuition, he made rapid progress in all the knowledge requisite for his profession. In the year 1787, being then nineteen years of age, he spent one winter at Edinburgh. He had good introductions, and, besides attending diligently on Dr. Cullen's medical course, Fyfe's anatomical lectures, and Black's chemistry, found time to be rather an active member of the "Speculative Society," a debating club then and afterwards of considerable celebrity and influence. His notes make us acquainted with some of the connections he formed here, and which must have been highly useful to him. Amongst others, besides those of his medical teachers, he mentions the celebrated names of Dugald Stewart, Adam Smith, Lord Meadowbank, and Charles Hope. Of Dr. Gregory, from a variety of others, we select the following beautiful and touching anecdote.

In

After making a tour into the Highlands on horseback, in the following summer, Cooper returned to England, and resumed his attendance at the best schools in the metropolis. He now studied under John Hunter, and that eagerly, and with vast profit; and to his bold adoption and clever exposition of the doctrines of this illustrious preceptor, are mainly to be attributed the subse quent distinguished rank which he himself took, and the fortune he made as a lecturer and surgical teacher. 1789, he was appointed demonstrator at St. Thomas's Hospital; and in 1791, Mr. Cline paid him the high compliment of procuring his nomination as joint-lecturer with himself in anatomy and surgery. From this date his career was one of rapid and uninterrupted advancement. In December of this year, we hear of his marriage with a Miss Anne Cock, the daughter of an intimate friend of Mr. Cline, a rich retired merchant, who inhabited a villa near Tottenham, but who, strange to say, died upon the very day that had been first settled for the wedding. Mr. Bransby Cooper thus relates the sequel: "A short time subsequent to this bereavement the friends of the young people considered it advantageous that their marriage should be no longer deferred. In December a christening was to take place from the house of Mr. Cline, and he thought that

and as practitioner, an eminence, which for a man of his standing, is perhaps without a precedent. The next great step, however, the appointment as surgeon to Guy's Hospital, met, in consequence of his French politics, with considerable opposition. But the difficulty was overcome by his avowing his determination to "relinquish the companionship and intimacy of his late democratical friends, and abandon for the future all participation in the strife of politics and party," a pledge to which he faithfully adhered. Fortune seems to have delighted in favouring him, for about this time he also succeeded to a great share of Cline's lucrative city practice, the latter having removed to the west end of the town. Mr. Cooper now occupied the spacious premises in St. Mary Axe, which Cline had vacated; and as yet, the great merchants of London, had not, generally speaking, abandoned the old custom of having their town-residences in connection with their places of business, he found himself in the centre of a most intelligent and opulent society, and soon became accustomed to munificent fees. For example, one ancient merchant, Mr. Hyatt, when pronounced all right again, tossed his night-cap to the surgeon, who, bowing politely, put it into his pocket, and, on entering his chariot, found pinned inside a bank-note for £1000 !-Others regularly paid him liberal annuities. A Mr.Coles, of Mincing Lane, for a long course of time, gave him £600 every Christmas. While on the subject of fees, it may be somewhat encouraging to struggling practitioners, as well as interesting to our readers generally, to insert here the following curious statement from Sir Astley's feebook:

this would afford an excellent opportunity for his young friends to be united. The marriage was solemnized, and they afterwards retired, as if they had been merely witnesses of the christening. On the evening of the same day, Mr. Cooper delivered his surgical lecture with all the ease of manner which characterized him on ordinary occasions, and the pupils dispersed without a suspicion of the occurrence. After lecture he went to the house in Jefferies-square, which Mr. Cock, promising to himself the happiness of seeing his daughter surrounded with every comfort, had but a short time before his decease purchased, and furnished for them." In June of the following year, the memorable 1792, the happy couple proceeded to Paris. The object of this nuptial excursion was, it would appear, in so far as Mr. Cooper at least was concerned, twofold. Along with his friend Cline's anatomical instructions, he had also imbibed that gentleman's peculiar political principles. Cline was a democrat, living in friendship with Horne Tooke, and Cooper was one of the most promising, and about this time, probably one of the most enthusiastic of their disciples. His visit to Paris, therefore, was, in the first place, more with a view to gratify his curiosity by attendance at the debates of the National Assembly, &c.; and secondly, of improving his professional knowledge by comparing the Parisian practice of surgery with our own, than for the sake either of change or amusement. During the terrible three months he remained there, he is said to have attended the hospitals daily, decorated with a democratic badge, which ensured his personal safety in the streets. He witnessed the 10th of August and the 2d of September, and notwithstanding the many atrocities My receipt," says he, "for the first brought under his eye, his Parisian ex-year was £5 5s.; the second, £26; the perience did not disturb his adhesion third, £64; the fourth, £96; the fifth, to Mr. Cline's political views. On the £100; the sixth, £200; the seventh, contrary, we learn upon good authority £400; the eighth, £610; the ninth, that on his return, he was "an active £1100, although I was a lecturer all steward of the festival of the Revolution the time on anatomy and surgery." Society of London, in 1793.” his later years, however, he is said to have made more money than any surgeon that ever lived before him. In

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In

This circumstance, however, did not interfere with his being, in the very same year, appointed to the professor-one year, 1815, his professional income ship at Surgeons' College, and he filled the chair with so much approbation that he was re-elected to it year after year, as long as he could place his services at their disposal. Before the close of the century he had reached, both as lecturer

amounted to upwards of twenty-one thousand pounds! The secret of all this, as has already been remarked, was industry. Throughout the whole thoroughly active period of his life, we are informed, Astley Cooper was in his dis

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