ELIAS S. COOPER.

BY L. COOPER LANE, M. D.

HE life of each illustrious man is a drama, of which

ly interest, when properly detailed by the faithful historian. The task of the latter, however, is no easy one, in case he attempts to trace those links which, as fractional parts, unite and truly represent the original.

Every great man's life, if studied comprehensively, reveals a purpose; and the historic painter would fall far short of what art claims from him, if, in the imagery of his picture, he omitted the delineation of glimpses of such a purpose, which, like a sunbeam in the background of a painting, illumines and brings into view each point and feature of the picture. Preeminently, in the life of him whose name appears at the head of this sketch, do we observe such an inspiring aim and continued purpose, that, like glory following virtue as its shadow, "lived with and accompanied him as an ever present genius." Besides the intellectual endowments with which he was gifted, he possessed those of the heart no less unusual. To depict these, with that simplicity of coloring which comports with nature, is no ordinary undertaking.

ELIAS SAMUEL COOPER was born in the southern part of Ohio, in the Miami Valley, one of the most beautiful sections of that State. His father, Jacob Cooper, emigrated at an early period to the West, from South Carolina.

Every mind, in its growth, finds the elements for its development and ultimate shape, in intrinsic and extrin

sic circumstances. A paternal and maternal influence, each strongly defined in character, by precept and example imparted to young Cooper the inceptive germs of mentality, and added to the same that momentum and accuracy of aim which went directly to the destined point.

Of the extrinsic circumstances, which, in many cases, far more than is known, gave shape and feature to the youthful mind, may be mentioned the beautiful landscape of hill and valley in which his early home was retired: these were yet half-covered with those majestic groves-beach, walnut, maple and oak-for which the Ohio valley is famous. During his rambles amidst the quiet seclusion of such scenery, armed with his rifle in quest of game, he formed an attachment for all that pertains to Nature. Amid such scenery and such life, no doubt, were developed those primitive moldings of self-reliance. those habits of independent thought, and power of living within himself, which finally assumed a permanent shape and became the distinguishing traits of his mind in his mature years. Few men have exhibited so large a share as he of that internal self-sustaining power, which enabled him to live independently of those props and supports which are indispensable to most men.

From the example of an older brother who had entered the medical profession, in which he has won and now holds an enviable position, the younger brother was led naturally to embrace the same calling. The selection of this profession was his own choice, and having once chosen it, he gave himself to its study with all the passionate ardor of youthful enthusiasm. The leading textbooks-especially those upon Anatomy-he almost committed to memory; for this branch of medical science he early exhibited a strong predilection, and its almost endless details, which are tiresome and difficult of acquirement by most students, were mastered by him with that pleasure and eagerness which love for a science always lends to its study. A fondness for Human Anatomy can scarcely exist alone-it naturally leads to Comparative Anatomy, its kindred science; hence, we find our young

student soon pushing his investigations in the latter quarter, and learning there those laws which, in the humbler grades of animated nature, do not differ from those existing in "the paragon of animals." With no other guide than his own original and all but intuitive genius, he instituted a series of most interesting and instructive experiments in the ligation of veins and arteries; in reference to the mechanism and function of the various valves; and the observations then made by him, he found subsequently of great value in operative surgery.

The writer has been for several years a medical teacher, and is familiar with the career of many medical students; yet never did he see such ardent devotion to study, and untiring zeal to master the facts of medical science, as were evinced by his subject. Whenever his mind caught a glimpse of the magnificent array of fact and theory; of what had been already accomplished, or what remained to be done; of the list of immortal names which are enshrined in the archives of medical science; it awakened and kept aglow in his bosom an impulse of devotion which only expired with the last vibration of his heart.

His medical collegiate course was commenced at Cincinnati, Ohio, and was completed at St. Louis, Missouri.

His selection of medicine, as a profession, was not at first sanctioned by parental consent; yet the opposition he met with in that quarter never diverted him for a moment from the fond purpose of his heart. His successful career was not long in convincing his father, to whom he was strongly attached, that the young man had made no error in his choice of a profession.

Dr. Cooper commenced the practice of medicine in a small town in Carroll County, Indiana; thence he moved to Danville, Illinois, where, though he had but recently attained his majority, his youth did not prevent him from acquiring a large and lucrative practice. During his stay at Danville, he won his first surgical triumph, in the successful removal of a large portion of the lower jaw of a patient. The self-possession and nerve of which he discovered himself the master on this occasion, made him at once determine to adopt surgery as his specialty and

sphere of action. The field, however, which he occupied was far too small to gratify his ambition; and hence he soon decided to move to Peoria, in the same State, a place which gave promise of speedily growing into a large city.

Upon his arrival at Peoria, he commenced a course of private dissections, being convinced that the daily use of the scalpel upon the dead body is the only way of honestly and properly qualifying one's self for the practice of surgery; and that, as the mariner can be a successful pilot only when, with his own hand, he has dropped the sounding line, and with his own eye noted each depth, and the exact location of each reef and rock, so the surgeon, in order to avert danger, and shun shipwreck on the strand of "death by misapprehension," must be likewise familiar with the topography of each muscle, nerve, and blood-vessel in the human microcosm. Our subject was fully alive to these facts; and in order to be amply armed and equipped for each and every emergency which might arise, he devoted himself to practical anatomy with the same zeal and untiring enthusiasm which had characterized his earlier studies. He already enjoyed a competency, the fruits of his previous practice, and was enabled to give most of his time for nearly four years to the prosecution of his favorite tasks in dissecting. His motto was that of the old painter, Apelles: Nulla dies sine linea. He allowed no day to pass by, without using his scalpel. His life was then one gala-day of the happiest enthusiasm and devotion to the mastery of the details of the greatest science, without doubt, which has ever interested the human mind, viz: Anatomy, or a knowledge of the constituents, form and relations of the parts composing the human body. Well might Galen, in his pardonable fervor, call it "the noblest hymn which man can chant to the Divinity."

Some five years after Dr. Cooper's arrival in Peoria, he established a surgical infirmary, where he received and treated all classes of surgical diseases, including those of the eye and car. The success which attended his practice quickly spread his reputation far beyond his home,