Born in Glasgow on November 7th, 1835, the son of John Couper, Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Glasgow, and Charlotte, daughter of Charles Tennant, of the St Rollox Chemical Works. The family of Couper is of ancient lineage in Scotland, and the name is the northern variant of the English 'Cooper' or 'Cowper'. After the death of Professor Couper in 1855, John Couper, who had begun his education at Glasgow Academy and at the University, went to Paris to perfect himself in French. He then returned to Glasgow and graduated in 1858, having been one of Lister's pupils at Edinburgh, where he also studied anatomy and physiology under Allan Thomson. After graduation he came to London and continued his study of anatomy at University College under Professor Viner Ellis (qv). Later he studied operative surgery under Langenbeck at Berlin. On his return to London he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy at the London Hospital Medical College largely through the influence of Professors Sharpey and Ellis. Turning his attention to ophthalmology, he also became Assistant to George Critchett (qv) at the London Ophthalmic Hospital in Moorfields. His researches in ophthalmology enabled him in 1883 to produce a 'magazine ophthalmoscope' which facilitated the measurement not only of errors of refraction, but of degrees of astigmatism. At the London Hospital his career was one of unswerving and upward progress. He was successively Demonstrator of Anatomy, Professor of Physiology, Assistant Surgeon, and full Surgeon and Professor of Surgery. As Professor of Physiology at the London Hospital he lectured conjointly with Hughlings Jackson, who was wont to say of his colleague that "no man had more knowledge worth communicating". It is probable that some of this knowledge was shown in communicating to Hughlings Jackson the value of the ophthalmoscope in diagnosis. As Professor of Surgery Couper gave a special course of lectures on diseases of the eye. On retiring under the time limit he was appointed Consulting Surgeon, and went to live at Ellesborough in the Chiltern Hills, whence he afterwards removed with his family to Falmouth. His death occurred on April 30th, 1918, and he was buried at Falmouth. He was survived by a widow, three daughters, and one son, Colonel Duncan Campbell Couper, RE. He left £178,000. Couper was amongst the last of the general surgeons who practised ophthalmology. A pupil of Lister, he introduced the use of the spray and dressings at the London Hospital before Lister came to King's College Hospital. He was a good but slow operator and was a pioneer in operations on the kidney and liver; he did much to popularize the use of the ophthalmoscope, more especially in estimating errors of refraction by the direct method of examination. Shy and somewhat retiring in manner, he wrote no books, though he made many contributions to the medical periodicals. He practised for many years at 80 Grosvenor Street, Grosvenor Square, W, and at the time of his death was Consulting Surgeon to the London, the Royal London Ophthalmic, and the Scottish Hospitals. He married in 1868 Helen Macfarlan, daughter of Alexander Campbell, Surgeon to the 1st Life Guards, and his wife Helen, daughter of the Rev Duncan Macfarlan, DD, Principal of Glasgow University, and Minister of the Cathedral. There is an excellent bust of Couper by Miss Anna Dabis and a three-quarter length portrait in oils, both in the Medical College of the London Hospital, and his coat of arms - two laurel branches inclining towards each other -appears in one of the College windows. Publications:- "Wounds of the Intestines." - *Trans. Pathol. Soc. Lond.*, xiv, 160. "An Attempt to Reduce a Dislocation of the Lower Jaw which had lasted nearly Four Months." - *Lond. Hosp. Rep*., 1864, i., 177. "The Diagnosis of Astigmatism by the Ophthalmoscope." - *Brit. Med. Jour.*, 1870, ii, 804. "A Magazine Refraction Ophthalmoscope." - *Trans. Ophthalmol. Soc.*, 1883, iii, 297.