JACOB BELL. 471 



Energy was natural to him, and whatever he undertook, even 1859. 



from childhood, he pursued with spirit. Another feature of his 



character, though but little known, was exhibited in his numerous 



acts of private benevolence, and few who have experienced his Private l>e- 



benefactions will forget the sympathy and delicacy with which 



they were administered. But in these, as in other cases, he 



would take no credit to himself, or care to place himself to the 



best advantage ; hence his motives sometimes failed to be fully 



appreciated. Those who knew him best, however, can testify 



to the uncommon disinterestedness that marked his conduct 



upon all occasions, and which was remarkably exhibited in the 



happy tact and conciliatory manner with which he treated those 



questions that occasioned a difference of opinion. 



Mr. Bell's genial good-nature, ready wit, and happy conversa- Personal loss 

 tional powers, his taste for literature and science, and extensive 

 patronage of art, had gained for him friends from all circles of 

 society. But though all deplore his loss, it is by his pharma- 

 ceutical brethren that it will be most deeply and practically felt. 

 For them he laboured assiduously and disinterestedly, and that 

 for a period of eighteen years ; and it is to his energy, wisdom, 

 and perseverance that the advance which pharmacy in this 

 country has happily undergone, is largely attributable. 



But little as we are disposed to underestimate the loss which 

 the Pharmaceutical Society has sustained in the death of one 

 who has devoted the best energies of a life to its service, we yet 

 reflect that at no other period of its existence could such an 

 event have occurred when its effects would have been less serious. 

 Thanks to the uoremitting labours of its late President, the 

 necessity for pharmaceutical education, and the true position of 

 those engaged in the practice of pharmacy, are now recognized 

 by all, and whatever changes the Society may have to undergo, 

 the utility and importance of its objects are such as insure for it 

 the position of a necessary institution of the country. 



