Report of the trial, Cooper versus Wakley, for libel / from the notes of W.B. Gurney ; with remarks on the evidence, by Bransby B. Cooper.

  • Bransby Blake Cooper
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the trial, Cooper versus Wakley, for libel / from the notes of W.B. Gurney ; with remarks on the evidence, by Bransby B. Cooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    have been tried to the utmost in that way; I have been so unfortunate as to perform an operation for the stone, in which, from the magnitude of the stone, it was impossible to remove it, and the man was removed from the table of the operation to his bed, and died in three hours; I believe the Plain- tiff to be a most skilful hospital surgeon. Upon cross-examination, he says, there has been no anatomical school at Norwich. He knew that some young men attempted to get up one, but he does not know that it is now in existence; that he was applied to on the sub- ject, and discouraged it. , . , Then the last witness, Mr. John Watson, the Secretary to the Apothecaries Company, is called to prove that Mr. Clapham, whose evidence the Defendant very properly gave up, had, unfortunately for himself, made a very great mis- representation of his age to the Apothecaries' Company, upon which he ob- tained his admission as a licentiate. Gentlemen, this is the substance, and, in part, the detail of the evidence on the one side and the other. The question is certainly one of very great im- portance as it respects the Plaintiff—an issue as to the skill of a medical man, and his fitness to fill the situation he holds, must necessarily be a question to him of very great importance. The Defendant has represented the case to be of no importance to himself. I cannot so consider it. I think it is of im- portance to a Defendant, in a case like this, that a jury should well weigh and consider the matter, and for what amount of damages their verdict ought to be. I do not think I can, by any further observations, assist you more than I have already done. I have mentioned to you that the operation is one of very great delicacy—one in which failures have occurred to the most skilful per- sons, and one in which, according to the testimony of the witnesses called on behalf of the Plaintiff, the length of time employed presents no criterion at all of the skill of the operator. You will take the whole of the case into your consideration. If you are of opinion that the Defendant, has made out what it was incumbent upon him to do, that this operation was performed in an un- skilful and unsurgeon-like manner, in a manner that makes the person who so performed it unfit to fill the office he holds—if that is your opinion, what- ever may be your opinion of the form of the report, or the motive of Mr. Lambert, the Defendant is entitled to your verdict. If you are of opinion the Defendant has not made out that proposition—that he has not satisfied you that this was performed in an un-scientific and unsurgeon-like manner —if that be your opinion, your verdict ought to be for the Plaintiff. If you find for the Plaintiff, you will then have to consider what damage you ought to give. I have already mentioned, that an imputation upon the character of a professional man, made as this has been, and widely circulated as this has been, is one calculated to do him a very serious injury, and one upon which, if you think the Defendant is in the wrong, you will think the Plaintiff is en- titled to that degree of compensation that shall shew that the Defendant has done wrong. But I cannot agree with one observation made by the learned Counsel for the Plaintiff, that the verdict of the jury should mark indignation —it should mark cool, temperate consideration and justice. I do not think
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