Walter Cooper Dendy

Walter Cooper Dendy (1794 to 1871) was an English surgeon and writer. Born near Horsham in Sussex, he was apprenticed locally, came to London about 1811 and studied at Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals, becoming a member of the College of Surgeons in 1814. He practised in Blackfriars and later in Great Eastcheap, served as president of the Medical Society of London, and was for many years senior surgeon to the Royal Infirmary for Children in the Waterloo Road. His medical books included works on the skin diseases of childhood and an early attempt to explain dreams and spectral illusions in medical terms, On the Phenomena of Dreams and Other Transient Illusions of 1832. He also wrote poetry and illustrated his own books, and in 1868 read a paper to the Anthropological Society of London attacking Darwinian doctrines. He died in London in December 1871.