Born at Penzance, the younger son of Thomas Coulson, master painter in Devon-port Dockyard, and a friend of Humphry Davy. His mother was Catherine Borlase. He was educated, partly at the local Grammar School, and then in Brittany, where he learnt to speak French well. He was apprenticed to a Penzance surgeon, and later studied at Grainger's School of Anatomy and St Thomas's Hospital. Coulson had literary ability, became a contributor to the Lancet in its earliest days, and later was in editorial charge of the foreign department. From 1824-1826 he studied in Berlin and acted as foreign correspondent to the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. Here he made friends with Thomas Campbell, the poet. After qualification he joined the Aldersgate School of Medicine with Tyrrell and Lawrence, and for three years acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy. In 1828 he was elected Surgeon to the Aldersgate Street Dispensary, and in 1880 Consulting Surgeon to the City of London Lying-in Hospital. Valuable work which he did there in connection with infection of joints during the puerperium was published in the second edition of his book on Diseases of the Hip-joint. In 1833 he joined the medical board of the Royal Sea-Bathing Infirmary at Margate, having resigned from the Aldersgate Dispensary on account of the unsatisfactory action of the committee. During this year he applied for the post of Assistant Surgeon to the London Hospital, but was beaten by T B Curling (qv). In spite of this he prospered; he removed from Charterhouse Square to Frederick's Place, Old Jewry, where he commanded for many years a very large practice. He was a founder of St Peter's Hospital for Stone. He served on the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1851-1863 and delivered the Hunterian Oration in 1861. When St Mary's Hospital was established he was elected Senior Surgeon. In addition to being an able surgeon, Coulson was a good business man and accumulated a quarter of a million of money, one of the largest fortunes ever made in practice. He married in 1840 Maria Bartram, who died on January 4th, 1876, to he followed by her husband on May 5th, 1877. A lithograph by Maguire is in the College Collection. Publications: *On Deformities of the Chest*, 1836; 2nd ed., 1837. *On Diseases of the Hip-joint*, 1837; 2nd ed., 1841. *On Diseases of the Bladder and Prostate Gland*, 8vo, 1838; 2nd ed., 1840; 6th ed., 1865. *On Lithotrity and Lithotomy*, 8vo, 1853. *Lectures on Diseases of the Joints*, 8vo, 1854.