Edward Cock

He published multiple academic papers, including a description of a novel approach to surgery of the urethra.

Cock was a nephew of Sir Astley Cooper, and through him became at an early age a member of the staff of the Borough Hospital in London, where he worked in the dissecting room for 13 years.

He was an excellent anatomist, a bold operator, and a clear and incisive writer, and though in lecturing he spoke with a stutter, he frequently used it with humorous effect and emphasis.

[1] From 1843 to 1849, Cock was editor of Guy's Hospital Reports, which contain many of his papers, particularly on urethral stenosis, puncture of the bladder, injuries to the head, and hernia.

He was the first English surgeon to perform pharyngotomy with success, and also one of the first to succeed in trephining for middle meningeal haemorrhage, but the operation by which his name is known is that of opening the urethra through the perineum, described in 1866.