BEL 



191 



BEL 



to explain. In 1 803 he made an offer to government for the 

 embodying of a corps of young men, to be instructed in 

 military surgery, and in the duties of the camp and hos- 

 pital, in order to aid in the service of the country, then sup- 

 posed to be on the eve of an invasion. The offer was first 

 accepted, but subsequently declined. 



After the loss of the infirmary, Mr. John Bell never re- 

 sumed his lectures : he settled his mind to private study and 

 professional occupation. He resumed his classical pursuits, 

 and perused and enjoyed the authors of antiquity with his 

 characteristic ardour. In 1805 he married a very amiable 

 and accomplished lady, the daughter of Dr. Congakon, a 

 physician long retired from practice, and he enjoyed in the 

 society of Mrs. Bell and a large circle of friends twelve 

 happy years in Edinburgh. Mr. Bell was always of a deli- 

 cate constitution, and towards the end of this period his 

 health declined so much that he was induced to visit the 

 Continent, in the hope of regaining his strength by travelling 

 and relaxation. In the course of his travels through Italy 

 he made notes of his observations, which, since his decease, 

 have been published by his widow. He finally sunk at 

 Rome, under the effects of his complaint. 



In 1793 Mr. Bell published the first volume of his Ana- 

 tomy, consisting of a description of the bones, muscles, 

 and joints. In a short time afterwards the second volume 

 was published, containing the anatomy of the heart and 

 arteries. The work was afterwards completed by his brother 

 Charles. His next work was on surgery, entitled Dis- 

 i'.i on the Mature and Cure of Wounds, in two small 

 volume*, 8vo. The Principles nf Surgery, in three vols., 

 4to., wts his next and most formidable undertaking ; and 

 his last production is the Letten on Professional Character 

 and Education, addressed to Dr. Gregory. 



The character of this celebrated man may be summed up 

 in a few words. He was a man of varied talents, and pos- 

 1 great energy and industry, great facility in commu- 

 nicating his ideas, and great acuteness and discrimination 

 in availing himself of all that knowledge which is essential 

 to perfecting surgical science ; but he had little patience 

 with the very slow retreat of antient prejudices, and little 

 acquaintance with the world, of which he was so much in 

 advance. He was an entertaining and instructive writer, 

 and a popular and eloquent teacher. As a controversialist 

 he was ucute and powerful, and as a writer pungent, even 

 beyond his intention and desire. His work on Italy has 

 shown that his talent for general literature, had it been ex- 

 clusively cultivated, would have made him at least as emi- 

 nent as his professional attainments have rendered him. 



BELL-FLOWER. [See CAMPANULA.] 



BELL-METAL. [See COPPER, ALLOYS OF.] 



BELL-METAL ORE, a name by which the sulphuret 

 of tin found in Cornwall (see Tiv PYRITES) is frequently 

 known, owing to the aspect of bronze or of bell-metal which 

 it possesses, in consequence of containing copper pyrites. 



BELL (or INCHCAPE) ROCK, on the east coast of 

 Scotland, lies at the opening of the bay formed by the Red 

 Head in Forfarshire and Fifeness, and nearly opposite the 

 entrance of the Tay. From Fifeness the Bell Rock is dis- 

 tant 11J geographical miles, bearing N.E. by E. JE. by 

 compass. It is dry for about half a mile at low water spring 

 ti'irs : its average breadth is about 200 yards. 



By an act of parliament a lighthouse was erected on this 

 rock, in which a light was first exhibited on the 1st of 

 February, 1811. The light, which is from oil, with re- 

 flectors, is 108 feet above the medium level of the sea: the 

 tides rise ten feet, and therefore the light is 113 feet above 

 low water. A bright and red light are exhibited, each of 

 which attains its greatest strength every four minutes. There 

 are two bells, which in thick foggy weather are tolled by 

 machinery night and day, at intervals of half a minute. 

 Prior to the erection of the light-house many wrecks took 

 place annually on this rock, which was the more dangerous 

 from having deep water all round it. (Stevenson's Account 

 f tho Bell Rock Light-house, 4to. 1824; Dessiou's North 

 Sea Pi/,,/. ) 



BELL AC, a town in France, the capital of an arrondisse- 

 ment in the department of Haute Vienne. It is on the 

 bank of the little river Vincon, a feeder of the Gartempe, 

 whose waters flow into the Creuse, by the Creuse into the 

 Vienne, and ultimately into the Loire. Bellac is probably 

 about twenty-five miles N.N.W. of Limoges, the capital of 

 Ihe department. It i, in .16 T N. lat., and 1 4' E. long. 



The town is built on the slope of a hill, at the foot of 



which the Vinjon flows. It does not appear to be a place of 

 much trade. It possesses, however, several tan-yards, some 

 paper-mills, and a foundry. Some woollens and linens are 

 also made. The wines of the neighbourhood are of fair 

 quality. The population in 1832 was 3025 for the town, or 

 3607 for the whole commune. 



The castle of Bellac was a place of strength in the tenth 

 century, and successfully withstood the attack of the com- 

 bined forces of Robert King of France, son of Hugues 

 Capet, and of the Duke of Aquitaine. The town sustained 

 a siege in the civil wars of the sixteenth century. It was 

 held for the king (Henry IV.), and was attacked by the 

 forces of the League under La Guierche. 



This siege is remarkable from the circumstance of the 

 assailants having attempted to throw a bridge, after the 

 manner of the antients, from a tower to the walls ; but the 

 bridge was destroyed by the guns of the town. 



In the neighbourhood of Bellac, near the village of Bor- 

 derie, is a fine druidical monument. The arrondissement of 

 Bellac contains 780 square miles, or 499,200 acres, and is 

 subdivided into nine cantons and seventy-nine communes. 

 The population in 1832 was 80,061. 



BELLADO'NNA, a violently poisonous wild plant. [See 

 ATROPA.] 



BELLADO'NNA (literally Fair Lady) LILY, a species 

 of Amaryllis, so called on account of its beauty and delicate 

 blushing Itowers. It is found wild at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, has become naturalized in the ditches of Madeira, 

 and is not uncommon in the gardens ,pf England, where it 

 lives for many years without shelter, if planted on a sunny 

 border well protected from wet in winter. Its stems are 

 about eighteen inches high, of a rich purplish green, with a 

 dense violet bloom spread over them : the flowers grow in 

 a cluster at the top of the stem, are of a funnel shape, with 

 six divisions curving backwards at the points, and not less 

 than three inches long ; their colour is a rich but not deep 

 rose, which varies in intensity in different varieties. They 

 appear in August and September, without their loaves, and 

 give an extremely rich and very exotic appearance to the 

 borders in which they appear. The bulbs may be procured 

 in any quantity from Madeira. 



BELLAMY, MRS. GEORGE ANN, an actress of 

 some celebrity. Her mother, whose name was Scale, after 

 having been the mistress of Lord Tyrawley, married Cap- 

 tain Bellamy, and a few months after her marriage gave 

 birth, on St. George's Day, 1733, to the subject of this 

 article : this unexpected occurrence occasioned Captain 

 Bellamy immediately to separate from her. The daughter 

 was educated in a convent at Boulogne, till she was eleven 

 years of age, when she returned to England. Rich, the 

 manager of Covent Garden Theatre, overhearing her re- 

 citing the part of Othello to his children, was struck by her 

 voice, and brought her out at the age of fourteen in the 

 part of Monimia in the tragedy of The Orphan.' As an 

 actress she drew the attention of the town for some seasons, 

 particularly when she played Juliet with Mr. Garrick at 

 Drury Lane, against Mrs. Cibber with Barry at Covent 

 Garden. Her life, a memoir of which she wrote and pub- 

 lished in six vols. 12mo., was a series of misfortunes and 

 errors. She died February 15th, 1788, at Edinburgh, in 

 great distress, aged fifty-five. 



BELLAMY, JAMES, was born at Flushing of poor 

 parents. As a boy he showed a great inclination for a mi- 

 litary life, but being the only son of his mother, she put him 

 to the trade of a baker, which he was still following, when 

 in the year 1772, the second secular festival in commemora- 

 tion of the foundation of the republic was celebrated through- 

 out Holland. Till then he had never given any proofs of 

 his genius, but this event suddenly made him a poet. His 

 fir.-t verses were effusions of patriotic feelings and love for his 

 native country. Some wealthy citizens of Flushing were 

 BO much pleased with these first productions of the young 

 poet, that, to encourage his talent, they resolved to send 

 him, at their own expense, to a university. Accordingly, 

 after the necessary preparation for academical lectures, he 

 went to Utrecht, with the intention of studying divinity. 

 These studies, however, he soon left for the more congenial 

 pursuits of poetry and general literature. A society of 

 students, among whom Kleyn and Rau afterwards distin- 

 guished themselves, the first as a jurisconsult, the second 

 as an orientalist, was then formed at this university, which 

 had for its object the cultivation and improvement of the 

 Dutch language and poetry after the German model : at 



