491 
OBITUARY. 
Died, at Tunbridge Wells, on the 12th of June, 1859, 
aged 45 years, Jacob Bell, Esq., the President of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Society, and Editor and Proprietor of the Phar¬ 
maceutical Journal . Although not a member of our profes¬ 
sion, we record the death of Mr. Bell with sincere regret. 
In him the “ Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain^ has, 
we fear, sustained an irreparable loss. During his life, he 
did more to raise the position of chemists and druggists than 
any other man. We were personally acquainted with him, 
and have often heard him express an earnest solicitude for 
our progress. With him we exchanged journals, and fre¬ 
quently our pages have been enriched by the labours of his 
pen, since there existed between us, if not a oneness of 
interests, a reciprocity of feeling arising from the similarity 
of our professional pursuits and sentiments. In the last 
number of the Pharmaceutical Journal are the following 
observations: 
“Mr. Bell’s health had been long declining. His naturally active 
disposition, and the enthusiasm with which he engaged in many public 
pursuits, caused him to overtax his physical powers, and thus was laid 
the foundation of a distressing complaint which deprived him of his 
voice, and rendered the act of deglutition a source of extreme suffer¬ 
ing. Throughout life he had manifested a remarkable disregard of his 
own personal ease and comfort, especially when business of importance 
claimed his attention, and this, which almost amounted to a reckless 
neglect of the requirements of nature, was continued long after the 
commencement, and no doubt contributed to the aggravation, of his 
illness. His mental powers remaining unimpaired, and the disease, 
laryngeal phthisis , chiefly affecting the organs of voice, he continued to 
exercise his pen with unabated energy, when he could no longer take 
part in public discussions. * * * Distressed with hectic cough, 
feeble and emaciated to the last degree, and deprived, almost wholly, of 
the power of receiving nourishment in consequence of the agony at¬ 
tending the act of swallowing, he calmly applied himself to the prepa¬ 
rations for his death. One of his last acts was the assignment of the 
copyright of this Journal to the Society at whose rise it was commenced, 
with whose progress it has been intimately associated, and in the interest 
of which it has ever been conducted. For some weeks before his death 
he resided at Tunbridge Wells, and there he fixed upon a spot for his 
last resting-place, beside the grave of the late Dr. Golding Bird. 
Having occasion to apply to the minister of the parish on this subject, 
he unexpectedly found in that gentleman an associate of his boyhood, 
the renewal of whose acquaintance contributed to render his last hours 
those of Christian peace, and assurance in a happy change. The in¬ 
structions he left for his funeral were consistent with his unostentatious 
deportment through life. Small was the parade of ceremony, and few 
the followers to his grave; yet he had many true mourners, and of these 
not a few gave public expression to their feelings by partially closing 
their shops. This was especially the case among our Members in 
