488 
EDTORIAL. 
OBITUARY. 
Jacob  Bell;  President  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain, 
and  Editor  of  the  (London)  Pharmaceutical  Journal,  died  on  the  12th  of 
June,  at  Tunbridge  Wells,  JZng.,  of  laryngeal  phthisis.  Jacob  Bell  was 
the  son  of  John  Bell,  who,  from  1798  to  the  period  of  his  death  in  1849, 
over  fifty  years,  pursued  the  business  of  a  chemist  and  druggist  in  Oxford 
street,  London.  We  have  not  the  data  to  describe  Jacob  Bell's  early 
career,  though  we  believe  his  pharmaceutical  education  was  conducted  in 
his  father's  establishment  in  Oxford  street.  Had  he  not  been  a  pharma- 
ceutist it  is  probable  that  he  would  have  been  an  artist.  From  early  life 
he  had  a  strong  taste  for  the  pencil,  especially  for  sketching  animals.  "At 
one  time  he  placed  himself  in  one  of  the  schools  of  painting  in  which  some 
of  our  best  artists  have  studied,  but  on  his  becoming  acquainted  with  Sir 
Edwin  Lanseer,  the  productions  of  the  pencil  of  the  great  animal  painter 
appeared  to  him  to  so  far  excel  anything  that  he  could  hope  to  attain,  that 
he  abandoned  the  attempt  in  despair.  But  though  he  relinquished  the 
idea  of  becoming  an  artist  himself,  he  remained  devotedly  attached  to,  and 
a  liberal  patron  of  art,  as  well  as  the  friend  of  artists  during  his  life." 
He  proved  a  warm  friend  of  Landseer,  and  was  the  means  of  rescuing  him 
from  the  picture  dealers,  and  in  1841,  when  Landseer's  health  required 
absence  from  his  professional  labors,  Mr.  Bell  accompanied  him  during  a 
six  months  tour  to  Geneva.  Some  of  the  best  specimens  of  this  distin- 
guished artist  were  possessed  by  Mr.  Bell,  and  these,  together  with  the 
rest  of  his  valuable  collection,  were  bequeathed  to  the  National  Gallery 
at  London. 
It  was  not  until  1841  that  the  subject  of  this  notice  was  called  upon  to 
give  public  evidence  of  the  energy  and  perseverance  which  has  so  strongly 
marked  his  subsequent  career.  In  that  year  Mr.  Hawes  introduced  his 
famous  Medical  Reform  Bill  into  Parliament,  which  bore  so  stringently 
upon  the  pharmaceutists  that  a  public  meeting  of  that  class  was  called, 
and  measures  taken  with  such  good  effect  that  the  bill  was  withdrawn. 
In  this  affair  Mr.  Bell  was  a  prominent  actor,  and  it  was  during  a  meeting 
of  the  committee  having  that  in  charge,  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Bell,  that  a 
series  of  resolutions  were  proposed  and  adopted  which  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society.  From  that  time  till  his  death 
he  devoted  himself  unremittingly  to  the  interests  of  that  Society,  and 
through  it  to  his  brethren  throughout  England  and  Scotland.  At  his 
own  expense  he  commenced  the  publication  of  the  "  Pharmaceutical  Jour- 
nal and  Transactions"  in  July  1841,  and  distributed  it  largely;  and  among 
the  many  wise  and  efficient  measures  then  suggested  and  carried  out,  none 
have  proved  more  widely  useful  to  the  pharmaceutical  body  of  England 
than  this  ;  for,  being  the  mouth-piece  of  the  Society  through  its  transactions, 
and  every  member  of  the  Society  subsequently  receiving  it  as  a  part  of  his 
privileges  and  rights,  the  information  of  its  pages  reached  into  all  the  cities 
