VETERINARY SKETCHES. 
107 
tual teacher of his day ; for, as he related only what he himself 
positively knew, he spoke with a degree of confidence that, while 
it secured perspicuity, at the same time impressed upon his pupils 
the subject-matter of his discourse, and filled them with the convic- 
tion that he had communicated to them all he himself knew. His 
success as a teacher rendered him, probably, more useful to the 
public than even his other high professional qualifications; for 
through this means he sent forth a greater number of medical men 
into the world to practise their profession, perhaps, than ever any 
teacher before or since his time. 
Sir Matthew Tierney says, that when he wanted a surgical 
opinion in the case of a person who could not afford to pay fees, 
Sir Astley Cooper was always ready ; and, under these circum- 
stances, his attention to his patients was marked by a kindness of 
manner even greater than usual. 
Sir Astley Cooper’s beautiful defence of his opera- 
tion OF tying the AORTA must not be suffered to pass unnoticed: — 
“ Sorry, indeed, should I be to sport with the life of a fellow- 
creature who might repose a confidence either in my surgical know- 
ledge or in my humanity ; but I should consider myself equally cul- 
pable if I did not make every possible effort to save a person whose 
death was rendered inevitable by a disease being suffered to con- 
tinue, and which it was possible for surgery to relieve. In the per- 
formance of our duty, one feeling should direct us. We should 
consider the case as our own, and we should ask ourselves whe- 
ther, placed under similar circumstances, we should choose to 
submit to the pain and danger we are about to inflict. Guided by 
this principle, and having collected all the evidence which applies 
to the case, we perform our duty without the reproaches of con- 
science, which must await those who unnecessarily subject their 
patients to pain and danger.” 
Bransby Cooper's Life of Sir Astley, vol. ii, p. 207. 
Sir Astley ’s receipts from practice were, £5.. 5s. during the first 
year; the second, £26; the third, £64; the fourth, £96; the 
fifth, £100; the sixth, £200; the seventh, £400; the eighth, 
£610 ; and the ninth, the year he was appointed to the hospital, 
£1100; and in the year 1815 it amounted to twenty-one thousand 
pounds. 
