Born at Ampthill, the eldest son of Thomas Chapman, surgeon, who lived to be 94, and nephew of Sir John Chapman, FRCS (qv), of Windsor. He was a student at St Bartholomew's Hospital under Abernethy from 1825-1827, and spent the winter session of 1828-9 in Paris. In 1830 he was House Surgeon to Earle at St Bartholomew's, and later assisted him in private practice. In 1832 he published *A Brief Description of Surgical Apparatus, together with an Atlas of Surgical Apparatus*, concerning which Sir James Paget, speaking from personal acquaintance, said: "It was a creditable work for the time of its publication, but it was far inferior in execution to the illustrated catalogues with which instrument makers have since been enabled to advertise". Inspection of the original suggests a depreciation and an exaggeration on the part of Paget. In 1848 he published a book *On the Treatment of Ulcers of the Leg without Confinement, with an Enquiry into the best mode of effecting the Permanent Cure of Varicose Veins*. There was a second edition in 1853 and a third in 1859. He advocated long strips of linen or calico, wet with water, and so laid on as not to constrict as did strapping and plaster. By this means he urged that elevation of the limb entailing confinement might be dispensed with. He noted improvement in cases of varicosities, even when surgical treatment by transfixing with a pin and applying a figure-of-8 ligature had failed. The method, indeed, was on the lines adopted later by Unna. He proceeded to apply wetted strips of bandage to varicose veins where there was as yet no ulceration, and he published *Varicose Veins, their Nature, Consequences and Treatment, Palliative and Curative* (8vo, London, 1856). This obtained rather better consideration from Paget: "He again describes his method, and how for clustered and saccular varices, he ingeniously adjusted various forms of pads under the straps. I do not doubt his success, but the plan requires skill and patience, more than busy men can give. The book is clearly that of a gentleman and a fair observer, and this Mr Chapman was known to be by all who, as I did, knew him well." Chapman visited Stromeyer's establishment at Hanover for the cure of deformities, was elected a Corresponding Member of the Hamburg Medical Society, operated for the cure of club-foot, and wrote in the Lancet (1838-9, ii, 329) on the etiology and pathology of the condition. He was amongst the first in England to test the value of cod-liver oil, and he published a memoir on its utility in scrofula (*Pharmaceutical Jour.*, 1841). He died at Cheltenham in 1876.