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XXVIII. Biographical Notice of the late Sir CHARLES BELL, K.H. 

 By Sir JOHN M'NEILL, G.C.B, 



" v* 



(Read 17th April 1843). 



THE pleasure which honourable and enlightened minds must feel in acknow- 

 ledging their obligation to the individuals who have advanced useful knowledge 

 in any department of science, who have contributed to the means of promoting 

 human happiness, or of alleviating human suffering, has, in all times, led men 

 to seek an opportunity of recording their sentiments of admiration and of grati- 

 tude towards the distinguished instructors of mankind. They have felt, too, that 

 the time when one of these guiding lights has been quenched, when a contributor 

 to the treasury of knowledge has just terminated his labours, is peculiarly fitted 

 for the discharge of this duty. The whole amount of his contributions is then 

 presumed to be before them, and they are restrained by no fear of offending his 

 delicacy by their praise, or of having their own feelings hurt by a misconstruction 

 of their motives. They know, that what might have been regarded as adulation 

 of the living, is often admitted to be but justice to the dead. 



To this Society, whose express object is the advancement of science, whose 

 especial care it therefore must be to watch over the reputation of every one to 

 whom science is indebted, and which is not only entitled, but required, to take a 

 leading part in determining the measure of praise that each labourer in the 

 various fields of its own domain may have merited, no apology can be necessary 

 for laying before it a short sketch of the late Sir CHARLES BELL'S claims to be 

 ranked high amongst the men who have established a title to its admiration. 

 But I may perhaps owe it to you, as well as to myself, to say, that having been 

 so long a stranger to the subjects with which I shall chiefly have to deal, I should 

 not have ventured to undertake this task, had I not been led to set aside all such 

 considerations by a desire to comply with the wishes of persons whose sentiments 

 are at all times, and especially on this occasion, entitled to respect and deference 

 from me. At the same time, I did not doubt but that I should experience your 

 indulgence while I endeavoured to do what I have thought it my duty to attempt. 



Sir CHARLES BELL, the youngest son of the Rev. WILLIAM BELL, a clergyman 

 of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, was born at Edinburgh, in the month of 

 November 1774. Having studied at the High School and the University of this 

 city, he devoted himself, at an early age, to the medical profession, and especially 

 to the study of anatomy, under his brother, the late Mr JOHN BELL, who was 

 twelve years older, and who had already laid the foundation of his fame as an 

 anatomist and as a surgeon. But Mr JOHN BELL was not merely an anatomist 



VOL. XV. PART III. 6 P 



