COCHRAN 233 COFFIN many because of his never-ceasing energy and ever watchful vigilance in his care for the public health. Thomas Hall Shastld. Jour. Amer. Med. Asso., 1896, vol. xxvii. Portrait. Eminent American Physicians and Surgeons, R. Francli Stone, Indianapolis, 1894. Portrait. Cochran, John (1730-1807) John Cochran, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1730, director- general of the military hospitals of the Con- tinental Army, was the son of a farmer, James Cochran, and received a careful general edu- cation under Dr. Francis Allison and studied medicine under Dr. Thompson of Lancaster. At the outbreak of the French and Indian War he enlisted as surgeon's mate in the hospital department where he did creditable service and acquired that skill and experience which stood him in good stead during the war of the Revolution. At the close of the war he settled in Albany, New York, where he married Mrs. Gertrude Schuyler, and removing from there he practised medicine in New Bruns- wick, New Jersey, and at the outbreak of the war of Independence offered his services to the colonies and was employed in the hos- pital department. On the personal recom- mendation of Washington, Cochran, in 1777, was appointed physician and surgeon-general to the army of the middle department. He displayed such marked ability that he was ■elected director-general in 1781, when Shippen resigned that office. At the close of the war Cochran retired and resumed practice in New York City. Soon after Pres. Washington appointed him commissioner of loans for the state of New York, an office he held for several years. He died April 6, 1807, at Palatine, New York. Albert Allemann. Surgeon-generals of the Army, J. E. Pilcher, Carlisle, Pa.. 1905. Amer. Med. & Philos. Reg., 1811, vol. i, 465-468. Port. Cocke, James (1780-1813) James Cocke, medical teacher and anatomist, was a native of lower Virginia and came from a wealthy and influential family. He was born about 1780 and enjoyed superior advantages in being a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, at Guy's Hospital, London. He graduated M. D. at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1804, when his thesis was "An attempt to ascertain the causes of the extra- ordinary inflammation which attacks wounded cavities and their contents." This attracted considerable attention from its bold and orig- inal views. In it he ably defended the pro- priety and practicability of ovariotomy, the first advocacy of this operation in America, according to Quinan. It was published a second time in 1806. He settled in Baltimore about the close of 1804, and entered into partnership with Dr. John B. Davidge (q. v.) early in 1807, lecturing on physiology to the private class of medical students founded by the latter. With Drs. Davidge and John Shaw he assisted in founding the college of medi- cine of Maryland, and later in advancing it to the rank of a university, in which he held the chair of anatomy from 1807 to bis death in 1813. He died of fever October 25, at the very hour at which he was to have delivered the opening lecture of the course in the new building of the university. He was buried in Kent County, Maryland. He was a young physician of rare virtues and promise, and his loss was a most serious one to the Maryland profession and her rising university. In 1805 he reduced a dislocation of the humerus of seventeen weeks and three days' standing, a feat that gave him great eclat. He possessed also marked business capacity and devised the ways and means for carrying on the work of the college. He married Elizabeth Smith of Kent County, Maryland. Eugene F. Cordell. Cocke, William (1672-1720) William Cocke was born in Sudbury, Suf- folk, England, of "reputable parents" in 1672 and educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, but it is not known in what year he came to Virginia. He was probably a practitioner in Williamsburg in the early years of the eigh- teenth century, for he acquired the reputation of being "of undisputed skill in his profes- sion and of unbounded generosity in his prac- tice." For several years in the latter part of the reign of Queen Anne, and in the first of those of King George I (say, from 1710 to 1720) he was a member of the Colonial Council and secretary of state for the colony. He was "learned and polite" and was held in high esteem by the gentlemen of the colony, and by Alexander Spotswood, the Governor. He died suddenly in 1720 while sitting as judge in the General Court in the Capitol, and he was buried at the west side of the altar in Bruton Church at Williamsburg, in which is a tablet to his memory, from the inscription on which the facts here related are derived. Robert M. Slaughter. Coffin, Nathaniel (1716-1766) This pioneer among medical men was
