Online Encyclopedia
Make a correction
Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.
Back to article:
JOHN COOPER FORSTER (1823-1886)
Your email:
Article name:
Article content:
FORSTER, JOHN COOPER (1823-1886), British surgeon, was born in 1823 in Lambeth, London, where his father and grand-father before him had been local medical practitioners. He entered Guy's hospital in 1841, was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in 1850, assistant-surgeon, 1855, and surgeon, 187o. He became a member of the College of Surgeons in 1844, fellow in 1849 and president in 1884. He was a prompt and sometimes bold operator. In 1858 he performed practically the first gastrostomy in England for a case of cancer of the oesophagus. Among his best-known papers were discussions of acupressure, syphilis, hydrophobia, intestinal obstruction, modified obturator hernia, torsion, and colloid cancer of the large intestine; and he published a book on Surgical Diseases of Children in 186o,, founded on his experience as surgeon to the hospital for children and women in Waterloo Road. He died suddenly in London on the znd of March 1886.