COOPER, Samuel, F.R.S., was deservedly celebrated for the variety and extent of his surgical information. He was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1803, and soon afterwards entered the army and became staff surgeon. In 1807 he obtained the Jacksonian prize for an elaborate Treatise on the Joints; and in 1832 he delivered the annual oration in memory of the founder of the Hunterian Museum. In 1835 he was appointed an examiner, and in 1845 was elected president, of the Royal College of Surgeons. For 17 years he was connected with the London University College and Hospital, and obtained
great popularity as a teacher. On the death of Mr Liston, in 1847, a misunderstanding arose between Mr Cooper and the senate in regard to the appointment of a successor, which induced him to resign his appointments. He retired to his country residence at Shipperton, where he died Dec. 3, 1848, in the 68th year of his age. He is the author of First Lines of the Practice of Surgery, and of a Dictionary of Surgery.
COOPER or COUPER, Thomas (1517-1594), bishop of Winchester in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was born at Oxford. In 1540 he was elected fellow of Magdalene College; but on the accession of Mary he resigned his fellowship, and applied himself to the study of medicine. Having taken the degree of bachelor in that faculty in 1556, he continued to practise as a physician at Oxford till the accession of Elizabeth, when he resumed the study of divinity, and became a distinguished preacher. He was afterwards appointed dean of Christ-Church and vice-chancellor of the university, having previously taken the degrees of bachelor and doctor in divinity. In 1569 he was made dean of Gloucester, and in the following year bishop of Lincoln, whence in 1584 he was translated to the see of Winchester. He wrote, 1. The Epitome of Chronicles, from A.D. 17 to 1560; 2. Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae, and Dictionarium Historicum et Poeticum, 1565, folio, which was highly valued by Queen Elizabeth, and procured his promotion; 3. A Brief Exposition of the Chapters of the Old Testament usually read in the Church on Sundays, 1573, 4to; 4. An Admonition to the People of England, 1589, 4to; besides some miscellaneous Sermons.