Farmer’s son William Cooke completed his medical training at Barts before embarking on a 60-year career as a general practitioner in and around London. In 1819, he was a co-founder, and for 20 years secretary, of the Hunterian Society which continues to provide education to its members. He was the author of several books where his views on the importance of post-mortem examinations and the interrelationships of body and mind in disease were discussed. He was a prominent non-conformist and became a deacon in the Congregational Church. He died in 1873, aged 87.
Two other doctors named William Cooke were active around this time, and their publications are intermingled in library collections. a) William Cooke MD (1778–1857). Born in Lavenham, Suffolk. He became professor of anatomy and, later, reader in medicine at Durham University. b) William Cooke MRCS (1802–1834) of Wolverhampton who infamously was found guilty of stealing a corpse. (See Bhanji S. William Cooke of Exeter: apothecary, surgeon, and grave-robber. Lancet 1995; 346: 1212–1214).
2.
CookeW. A commentary of medical and moral life: or, mind and the emotions considered in relation to health, disease, and religion, London: Longman, Brown, & Co, 1852, pp. iv–iv.
3.
Anonymous. Obituary. British Medical Journal1873; 1: 301–301.
4.
CookeW. Case of singular torpor, in which dissection did not discover any satisfactory explanation. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal1812; 8: 24–24.
5.
CookeW. A practical and pathological inquiry into the sources and effects of derangements of the digestive organs embracing dejection and some other disorders of the mind, London: Longman Rees & Co, 1828, pp. 79–79.
6.
CookeW. On a substitute for alcohol in making anatomical preparations. London Medical and Physical Journal1817; xxxvii: 180–186.
7.
CookeW. An address to British females on the moral management of pregnancy and labour, and some cursory observations on medical deportment: suggested by the death of Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales: with a vindication of Her Royal Highness's physicians, Sir Richard Croft, Dr. Baillie, and Dr. Sims, London: E Cox and Sons, 1817.
8.
Thomas Jeremiah Armiger, born in 1781, was a third generation surgeon apothecary working in East London. Although one of the Hunterian Society’s first secretaries, he was dogged by ill health and had little to do with the Society once it was established. A bachelor, for many years he was connected with the London Hospital and The Eastern Dispensary. Coincidentally he had been ‘Surgeon Extraordinary’ to Princess Charlotte before her pregnancy. He moved to Ilfracombe in North Devon, probably because of his health, and died there a few years later in 1844.
9.
FinlayDW. (ed.) The Hunterian Society. A catalogue of its records and collections relating to John Hunter and the Hunterian tradition with a history of the society, London: The Hunterian Society, 1990.
10.
Uwins D, Palmer S and Gray. The London medical repository. 1819; xi: 432–433.
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CookeW. (ed.) The seats and causes of diseases investigated by anatomy by John Baptist Morgagni (2 volumes), London: Longman Hurst Rees Orme and Brown, 1822.
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Morgagni J. De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis. Venice. Remondini, 1761.
13.
Personal Communication from Julie Greenhill, Reading Room Administrator, University of St Andrews Library, referring to entry in the Biographical Register of the University of St Andrews 1747–1897 by Robert Smart. (Both Maclagan and Hamilton were fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. James Hamilton was 82 at the time he recommended Cooke for the doctorate and had assisted him in the formation of the Hunterian Society).
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Illustration from: Kaye E. The history of the King’s Weigh House Church, London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1968.
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CookeW. Remarks on a recent effort to subvert the charter of the Royal College of Surgeons with animadversions on the evil tendency of ‘The Lancet’, London: Thomas and George Underwood, 1826.
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CookeW. Separation without dissension. Observations respectfully addressed to general practitioners on the best means of maintaining their privileges and respectability, London: Longman Rees and Co, 1831.
17.
GreenJ. Distinction without separation, London: Hurst Chance & Co, 1831.
18.
StewartEFG. The Hunterian Society. The Practitioner1969; 202: 572–580.
