In Great Britain the example of John Hunter, during the eighteenth century, produced results of the greatest importance; advances were made simultaneously in physiology and pathology which the Anglo-Saxon races have been quick to utilize. While, perhaps, more conservative and less inventive than the French, the surgeons of England have ever been in the front rank, and quite early they gave great attention to careful local dietetic and hygienic measures, of which Continental surgeons were, and are, too often neglectful. English surgeons, too, while they have been specialists, have never been quite so narrow in their respective fields as the Continental surgeons, and it has always been rare to find one who was not also a good general practitioner; the immense advantages which this added knowledge confers must be apparent. The most celebrated representative of British surgery of this century was the son of a clergyman,--Sir Astley Cooper, born in Norfolk in 1748, but subsequently a resident of London. During youth he resolutely compressed the bleeding limb of a playmate who was the victim of an accident, so that time was gained for the arrival of a surgeon, who then tied the{272} vessel; this decided his future calling, and he pursued his studies in London, Edinburgh, and on the Continent. In 1791 he settled down to private practice, which soon yielded him an income in excess of £20,000 ($100,000), for his day the equivalent of thrice that amount at present. At the age of seventy-three he succumbed to a longstanding asthma. He was a somewhat voluminous writer, and his works on fractures, dislocations, and diseases of the breast are by no means obsolete. His motto was: "First observe, and then think." Exceptionally endowed with all the graces of person, he became one of the most popular and influential men of his day; withal, he was always zealous for his profession, never unoccupied, and charitable to a high degree. Of his boldness we have evidence in the fact that in 1817 he tied the abdominal aorta, being the first to undertake this surgical feat. [Illustration: 0292] [Illustration: 0293] A colleague{273} of Cooper's at St. Thomas's Hospital was Travers, already spoken of in connection with irritation. Tyrrel, a nephew of Cooper, was a well-known surgeon, particularly in diseases of the eye. Others of the same name were: Samuel Cooper (1781-1848), who wrote a voluminous treatise on practical surgery; Bransby Cooper (1792-1853), Sir Astley's nephew and adopted son, who was well known, and who achieved an eminence that is only dimmed by that of his uncle.