ABSTRACT
Cooper described a series of patients with what he called ‘hydatid disease of the breast’. He described four types of these swellings, three of which he considered benign. The first type of hydatid is what we now recognize as a simple cyst lined by flat epithelium. The second type was an apocrine cyst, the third was a cluster of cysts and the fourth type of hydatid he describes as a vascular and malignant cystic lesion. Cooper describes patients who he treated with different types of cysts and their outcomes. He quite clearly distinguishes benign cysts from intracystic cancers.
