William Cowper (anatomist)

William Cowper ( ; c. 1666 – 8 March 1709) was an English surgeon and anatomist, famous for his early description of what is now known as Cowper's gland.

Cowper was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, and he was apprenticed to a London surgeon, William Bignall, in March 1682. He was admitted to the Company of Barber-Surgeons in 1691 and began practising in London the same year. In 1694, he published his noted work, ''Myotomia Reformata, or a New Administration of the Muscles'', and he was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1696. In 1698, he published ''The Anatomy of the Humane Bodies'', which gained him great fame and notoriety, and over the next eleven years he published a number of tracts on topics ranging from surgery and pathology to physiology and anatomy. He died on 8 March 1709, and was buried in St Peter's Church, Petersfield.

Some have called Cowper's ''Anatomy of the Humane Bodies'' one of the greatest acts of plagiarism in all of medical publishing, though others have not been as harsh. In 1685, Govard Bidloo (1649–1713) published his ''Anatomia Humani Corporis'' in Amsterdam using 105 beautiful plates drawn by Gérard de Lairesse (1640–1711) and engraved by Abraham Blooteling (1640–1690). A Dutch version was later printed in 1690, entitled ''Ontleding des Menschelyken Lichaams'', but when sales went poorly, Bidloo's publishers sold 300 copies of the unbound plates to William Cowper (or his publishers).

Cowper proceeded to write a new English text to accompany the plates, many of them showing a great deal of original research and fresh new insights. He also commissioned nine new plates drawn by Henry Cooke (1642–1700) and engraved by Michiel van der Gucht (1637–1680) and that after his death Swammerdam's widow had sold them to Bidloo. Whatever the truth may be, it is undeniable that Cowper was a great anatomist and surgeon in his own right – and that he clearly did not give Govard Bidloo proper credit for his involvement in this work.

References

* Bidloo, Govard
Anatomia humani corporis, centum & quinque tabulis, per artificiossis.
(Sumptibus viduæ J. a Someren, 1685.) Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. University of Toronto Libraries.
*''Dictionary of National Biography''. (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1887). Vol. 12, pp. 388–389.
* ''Morton's Medical Bibliography'' (Garrison and Morton). Ed. By Jeremy Norman. 5th ed. (Aldershot, Hants., England : Scolar Press; Brookfield, Vt., USA : Gower Pub. Co., 1991). No. 385.1.
* Russell, K. F. British anatomy, 1525-1800: a bibliography of works published in Britain, America and on the Continent. 2nd ed. (Winchester, Hampshire: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1987). Introduction and nos. 211-214.
* Adapted from public domain text a

Historical Anatomies on the Web. US National Library of Medicine.

External links

*

Cowper, William. The anatomy of human bodies,... containing many new anatomical discoveries and chirurgical observations, 1698

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowper, William
1666 births
1709 deaths
British anatomists
Fellows of the Royal Society
People from Petersfield