Born on Sept. 11th, 1781, the second of the sons of a merchant who had made a fortune in the West Indies. He was educated at Greenwich at the school kept by the Rev. Charles Burney, D.D., son of the historian of music, whose library was bought by the nation to be preserved in the British Museum as the 'Burney Library'. It was probably Burney's influence which rendered Cooper such a voluminous author that he has been called 'the surgical Johnson'. Samuel Cooper entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1800 and became a Surgeon's Mate in May, 1801, though he does not appear to have been attached to a regiment. He began to practise in Golden Square, and in 1805 he published a work on cataract. He gained the Jacksonian Prize at the College of Surgeons in 1806 with a dissertation on the "Diseases of the Joints, particularly of the Hip and Knee, and the best Mode of Treatment". The essay was published in 1807 in England, at Boston in 1808, and at Hanover, N.H., in 1811. In 1807 appeared his *First Lines of the Practice of Surgery: designed as an Introduction for Students and a Concise Book of Reference for Practitioners*. It had a large and continuous sale, the seventh edition being published in 1840. In 1809 the first edition of his great surgical dictionary appeared under the title *A Dictionary of Practical Surgery: containing a complete exhibition of the present state of the principles and practice of surgery, collected from the best and most original sources of information and illustrated by critical remarks.* It was instantly successful, and as *Cooper's Surgical Dictionary* it continued to be revised and issued until 1838, and was translated into French, German, and Italian, whilst several editions appeared in America, the one in 1810 being issued with notes and additions by John Syng Dorsey. Samuel Cooper married Miss Cranstoun in 1810; she died in the following year and left him with a daughter who afterwards married Thomas Morton, Surgeon to University College Hospital. In 1813 Cooper entered the Army and served as a surgeon in the Waterloo campaign. Retiring on the conclusion of peace, he devoted most of his attention to the editing of successive editions of his two principal works and of Mason Good's *Study of Medicine*, of which the fourth edition appeared in 1834. He was elected Surgeon to the North London (now University College) Hospital, London, in 1831, and became Professor of Surgery in University College. He resigned these posts in 1847 in consequence of a quarrel with the Council of the University as to a successor in the post of Professor of Clinical Surgery left vacant by the death of Robert Liston. Cooper objected to the post being offered to Professor James Syme of Edinburgh. The Council, led by William Sharpey, MD (1802-1880), and Jonas Quain MD (1796-1865), persisted. Syme was appointed in February, 1848, found the position impossible, and resigned in May of the same year. Cooper served as a Member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1827-1848 and of the Court of Examiners from 1835-1848. He was Hunterian Orator in 1832, Vice-President in 1843 and 1844, and President in 1845. He was elected FRS in 1846, was Surgeon to the Forces and to the King's Bench and Fleet prisons. He died of gout 2 Dec 1848. His bust by Timothy Butler is in the College, and his portrait by Andrew Morton hangs on the main staircase. A mezzotint of the portrait by Henry Cousins was published in 1840 by Messrs. Colnaghi. Cooper made his mark early in life by his writings; his *First Lines of the Practice of Surgery* is admirable, and his *Dictionary of Practical Surgery* a monument to his industry and knowledge; it was indeed a work of inconceivable labour, for Cooper had no assistance in its production. It presents an immense mass of surgical information, and during the thirty years preceding 1838 it was the text-book of every student of surgery. Cooper did good service to his hospital as a teacher, but his surgery was somewhat old-fashioned, and he was eclipsed in the operating theatre by Liston. During the seventeen years he was Surgeon to University College Hospital, his great surgical knowledge, and his kindness and urbanity of manners in the duties of Professor of Surgery, procured for him the warm attachment of the students.