-ids 



lil-.I.L BELL HOCK. 



purtsof Asia," to wliich reference has already been I 

 made. It wits printed in two volumes 4to by Robert | 

 ;,iid Andrew Foulis, in 17(>3, and published by sub- 

 ifCription 



BKU., John, a distinguished Mirg -on in Edinburgh, 

 was born in that city in 1762. After completing his 

 professional nhication he traveled for a short time 

 in Uu^la. and the north of Europe; and on his re- 

 turn begun to deliver lectures 0:1 Surgery end Mid- 

 wifery. Thevc lectures, which he delivered between 

 the years 17No and ITOii, were very highly esteemed, 

 and speedily brought him into practice as a consulting 

 and operating surgeon. The increase of his | 

 practice, indeed, rendered it necessary for him, in 

 1796, to discontinue his lectures, and from that time 

 forward he devoted himself to his patients, nnd to the 

 preparation of the several publications of which he 

 was tlie author. 



Fur upwards of twenty years Mr Bell may be said 

 to have stood at the head of his profession in Edin- 

 burgh as an operator. Patients came to him from all 

 quarters, both of Scotland and England, and even 

 from the continent ; and during that interval lie per- 

 formed some of the most delicate and difficult opera- 

 tions in surgery. Early in 1816, he was thrown by 

 a spirited horse ; and appears never to have entirely 

 recovered from the effects of the accident. In the 

 autumn of that year he made an excursion, partly on 

 account of his health, to London ; thence he pro- 

 ceeded to Paris, and afterwards pursued his journey 

 southwards, visiting the most distinguished cities of 

 Italy. During his residence on the continent, he 

 was treated in the most flattering manner by the 

 members of his own profession ; and his countrymen, 

 who, after the peace of 1815, had gone to the conti- 

 nent in great numbers, gladly took his professional 

 assistance. In Paris, Naples, and Rome in particular, 

 his numerous patients occupied him perhaps too ex- 

 clusively : for his health continued to decline, and 

 he died at Rome, April 15, 1820, in the fifty-seventh 

 year of his age. 



Mr Bell was a good classical scholar, and so gene- 

 ral a reader that there were few works of any note 

 in literature, either ancient or modern, with which 

 he was not familiar. This was remarkably shown in 

 his library, in which there was hardly a volume on 

 any subject which did not bear traces of having been 

 carefully perused and noted by him. His practice 

 was to make annotations on the margin as he read ; 

 and considering the engrossing nature of his profes- 

 sional labours, and the several works in which he 

 was himself engaged, nothing is more extraordinary 

 tlian the evidence which is still in existence of the 

 extent and variety of his miscellaneous reading. The 

 information which he thus acquired was not lost upon 

 him ; he was polished and easy in his manners his 

 perception of the ludicrous was keen and the taet 

 with which he availed himself of his extensive read- 

 ing and general knowledge of all the interesting 

 topics of the day, will be long remembered by those 

 who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. His con- 

 versational powers, indeed, were of the very highest 

 order ; and as he had great urbanity and kindness of 

 manner, and was happily free from that affectation by 

 which good talkers are sometimes distinguished, there 

 were few of his cotemporaries whose society was more 

 generally courted by the upper classes in Edinburgh ; 

 and none who were better fitted to adorn and enliven 

 the circle in which he moved. His generosity to 

 those whose circumstances required pecuniary aid 

 was well known, and his contempt for any thing ap- 

 proaching to what he thought mean or narrow mind- 

 ed, was ooundless, and frequently expressed in no 

 very measured terms. The warmth of his temper, 

 however, involved him in several misunderstandings 



with his professional brethren ; the most remarkable 

 of which was that wliich brought him and the late 

 l)r Gregory into collision. The question on which 

 these two distinguished men took opposite sides, re- 

 lated to the right of the junior members of the Col- 

 ie;;e of Surgeons of Edinburgh, to perform operations 

 in the Royal Infirmary. This dispute divided the 

 medical men of Edinburgh towards the close of the 

 last century; and l)r Gregory and Mr Bell wrote 

 several volumes about it. But, although great wit 

 and much happy sarcasm were displayed on both 

 sides, it is impossible to look back to this dissension 

 without feeling regret that two of the most eminent, 

 medical men of their day should ha\e.. wasted their 

 ingenuity and high talents in acrimonious and unpro- 

 fitable controversy, on a topic of ephemeral int 

 and comparatively minor importance. 



The following is a complete list of his professional 

 works : 1. The Anatomy of the Human Body, vol. 

 i. 8vo, 1793, containing the Bones, Muscles, and 

 Joints; vol. ii. 1797, containing the Heart and Ar- 

 teries ; vol. iii. 1802, containing the Anatomy of the 

 Brain, Description of the course of the nerves, and 

 the Anatomy of the Eye and Ear ; with plates by 

 Charles Bell, third edition, 3 vols. 8vo, 1811. 2. En- 

 gravings of the Bones, Muscles, and Joints, illustra- 

 ting the first volume of the Anatomy of the Human 

 Body, drawn and engraved by himself, royal 4to, 

 179 i, third edition. 3. Engravings of the Arteries, 

 illustrating the second volume of the Anatomy of the 

 Human Body, royal 4to, 1801, third edition, 8vo, 

 1810. 4. Discourses on the nature and cure of 

 wounds, 8vo, 1795 ; third edition, 1812. 5. Answer 

 for the Junior Members of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons to the Memorial of Dr James Gregory, to 

 the Managers of the Royal Infirmary, 8vo, 1800. 

 (). The Principles of Surgery, 3 vols. 4to, 1801-1808. 

 7. Letters on Professional Character, &c. His 

 Observations on Italy is a posthumous work, which 

 was edited by the late Bishop Sandford of Edin- 

 burgh. 



BELL, Thomas, a Scottish theological writer, was 

 born at Moflat on the 24th of December, 1733, stu- 

 died at the university of Edinburgh, was licensed as 

 a preacher of the gospel by the presbytery of Relief, 

 1767, and settled as pastor of the Relief congregation 

 of Jedburgh the same year. In 1777, he was re- 

 moved to Glasgow, where he had the charge of a 

 large and respectable congregation belonging to the 

 same body, till his death, which happened on the 

 loth of October, 1802. His works are, " The Stan- 

 dard of the Spirit lifted up against the enemy coming 

 in like a flood,'' being the substance of several ser- 

 mons preached at Glasgow, 1780; "A proof of the true 

 and eternal Godhead of the Ix>rd Jesus Christ, trans- 

 lated from the Dutch of Dionysius Van de Wynpresse, 

 D. D. professor of philosophy, mathematics, and as- 

 tronomy at Leyden," printed at Edinburgh, 1785 ; 

 " Conciliatory or Irenical Animadversions on the 

 controversies agitated in Britain under tlie unhappy 

 names of Antinomians and Neonomians, translated 

 from the Latin of Herman Witsius, D. D. professor 

 of divinity in the universities of Franeker, Utrecht, 

 and Leyden, &c. with notes, c." ; " Sermons on 

 various important subjects," and " A View of the 

 Covenants of works and grace," &c. The three last 

 were printed at Glasgow after his death. Mr Bell 

 was highly respected as a scholar, a theologian, and 

 a Christian. Besides the above, he left behind him 

 several works upon important subjects, some of them 

 finished for the press, which, it is to be regretted, 

 have never been given to the public. 



BELL-METAL. See Copper. 



BELL-ROCK, or INCH CANE; a dangerous rock of 

 Scotland, situated in the German ocean, alxuit twelve 



