Benjamin Bell
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Bell of Hunthill FRSE FRCSE (1749–1806) is considered by many to be the first Scottish scientific surgeon. He is commonly described as the 'father of the Edinburgh school of surgery', or the first of the Edinburgh scientific surgeons,,. He published medical works of significance, notably his surgical textbook 'A System of Surgery' which became a best seller throughout Europe and in America. His treatise on venereal disease was the first to suggest that syphilis and gonnorrhea were different diseases, a hypothesis which was not accepted by mainstream medicine until many decades later. Bell's main contribution to surgical practice was his adage 'save skin', which led to improved rates of wound healing in operations like mastectomy and limb amputation. He was also an early advocate of routine pain relief in surgery.
on 6 September 1749, the eldest child of George Bell (1722–1813), who farmed at Woodhouselees, a mile south of the village of Canonbie in Dumfriesshire. In addition to farming George Bell was involved in a series of business ventures which met with mixed success. This background of modest wealth was to prove important for his son Benjamin in later life, allowing him to visit surgeons in London and Paris and enabling him to take time away from his surgical practice to write a major textbook. The family tradition in agriculture was to re-emerge towards the end of his life. His family also owned Blackett House in Middlebie Parish (Dumfriesshire), which Bell was later to sell to fund the education of his family. His early education was at Dumfries Grammar school.
in [1766] to study medicine at Edinburgh University under the tutelage of some of the most inspiring medical teachers of the day, including Alexander Monro
(Secundus; 1733–1817) the anatomist, Joseph Black
(1728–99) the chemist and John Hope
(1725–86) the botanist. In November 1767 he was appointed dresser in the surgical wards of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and surgeons' clerk 2 years later. He visited London
and Paris
, writing to his father that had he been planning a career as a physician he would have been happy to stay in Edinburgh, “but for a surgeon I assure you Edinburgh comes greatly short of either Paris or London and for that reason Dr. Monro and any others that I have spoken to here upon the subject approve of the scheme [the Paris visit] very much”. In 1770 after passing the necessary examinations, he was elected a freeman surgeon-apothecary of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh later the Royal College of Surgeons
in Edinburgh.
In 1772 Bell was in London from where he wrote to Dr. Cullen
William Cullen
thanking him for his letter of introduction to John Hunter
(1728–1793) whom he described as “the most agreeable and at the same time the most useful acquaintance I ever met with.” He also visited and observed the London surgeon Percivall Pott
(1714–1788) to whom he would later dedicate his treatise on ulcers. Bell’s interest in science is evident from his description of a lecture which he attended at the Royal Society given by Joseph Priestley
. Priestley’s suggestion that atmospheric air contained fixed air (carbon dioxide) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen) clearly made an impression on Bell who noted from the lecture that “air can be spoiled by one or more animals breathing it in a confined space and become unfit for purposes of life”
, the Professor of Physic, and the most influential member of the Infirmary Board of Management. In 1800 there was pressure from younger members of the College of Surgeons to change the system of appointment of surgeons to the Infirmary, making shorter appointments so that more junior surgeons might gain Infirmary experience. At that time, now well established in practice, Bell was content to step down, but he wrote to the College setting out the case for ‘permanent appointments’ to the Infirmary rotation, a view which had been also promoted by Gregory. Of the 23 members of the College of Surgeons asked to vote on the matter, not one supported Bell’s proposal. John Bell
(1763–1820), a successful teacher of anatomy in his own extra-mural school and an accomplished Edinburgh surgeon (but not related to Benjamin Bell), failed to gain appointment to the Infirmary rota, and began to campaign against what he saw as the injustice of the rota system. As part of this he wrote criticising Gregory’s views 9, and this brought the Bells, Benjamin and John into conflict. This feud was at the heart of much of the criticism to which Benjamin Bell was subjected by his namesake.
In 1775 Bell fell from horseback and sustained injuries that were to force him to take an enforced rest from surgical practice for some two years. This rest was to prove fortuitous, for it allowed him time to reflect and to write, and his relatively wealthy background enabled him to do this without financial concerns. To further develop his interest in farming during this period of recuperation, he took the lease of Liberton Farm situated some two miles south of the centre of Edinburgh.
Returning to what was to prove a highly successful career as a surgeon in Edinburgh, Bell went into practice with James Gibson (d1815) who was to become president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1778-79. Later he formed another surgical partnership with James Russell (1754–1836) and Andrew Wardrop (d1823). Bell, Wardop and Russell became the leading surgical practice in Scotland with a wide referral base. Wardrop reckoned Bell “… was a successful operator and during many years was more employed than any surgeon in Scotland”. He went so far as to boast of his partner that “…no one could die contented without having consulted Benjamin Bell.”
In 1783 Benjamin Bell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
.
in 1797.http://www.marshall.edu/library/speccoll/virtual_museum/hoffman/bell_benjamin.asp
to relieve post-operative pain, stating: to be able to alleviate the misery of those who are obliged to submit to dangerous operations must afford the biggest gratification to every practitioner. Bell also credited his fellow Scot
, James Moore, with developing a clamp to produce nerve compression in the arm or leg to provide analgesia for amputation
. http://www.rcsed.ac.uk/journal/svol3_2/3020008.html
He was also a close friend of the British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger
- who had at sometime offered Bell a title of Lord. Bell politely refused.http://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst1394.html
(1776–1855) to prepare plans for housing and the subdivision of the land into plots.
(1837–1911), was known for his diagnostic abilities which depended on his ability to observe minute details. This inspired a young Edinburgh medical student Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859–1930) to base a fictional detective Sherlock Holmes
on Joseph Bell.
Early life
Benjamin Bell was born in DumfriesDumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
on 6 September 1749, the eldest child of George Bell (1722–1813), who farmed at Woodhouselees, a mile south of the village of Canonbie in Dumfriesshire. In addition to farming George Bell was involved in a series of business ventures which met with mixed success. This background of modest wealth was to prove important for his son Benjamin in later life, allowing him to visit surgeons in London and Paris and enabling him to take time away from his surgical practice to write a major textbook. The family tradition in agriculture was to re-emerge towards the end of his life. His family also owned Blackett House in Middlebie Parish (Dumfriesshire), which Bell was later to sell to fund the education of his family. His early education was at Dumfries Grammar school.
Surgical training
He became an apprentice to James Hill, a surgeon in Dumfries, before moving to EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in [1766] to study medicine at Edinburgh University under the tutelage of some of the most inspiring medical teachers of the day, including Alexander Monro
Alexander Monro (secundus)
Alexander Monro of Craiglockhart and Cockburn was a Scottish anatomist, surgeon and medical educator. To distinguish him as the second of three generations of physicians of the same name, he is known as secundus. His students included the naval physician and abolitionist Thomas Trotter...
(Secundus; 1733–1817) the anatomist, Joseph Black
Joseph Black
Joseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
(1728–99) the chemist and John Hope
John Hope (botanist)
John Hope was a Scottish physician and botanist. He is best known as an early supporter of Carl Linnaeus's system of classification, largely because he published very little of the research that might have made him a name in plant physiology....
(1725–86) the botanist. In November 1767 he was appointed dresser in the surgical wards of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and surgeons' clerk 2 years later. He visited London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, writing to his father that had he been planning a career as a physician he would have been happy to stay in Edinburgh, “but for a surgeon I assure you Edinburgh comes greatly short of either Paris or London and for that reason Dr. Monro and any others that I have spoken to here upon the subject approve of the scheme [the Paris visit] very much”. In 1770 after passing the necessary examinations, he was elected a freeman surgeon-apothecary of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh later the Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and advancement in surgical practice, through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical workforce...
in Edinburgh.
In 1772 Bell was in London from where he wrote to Dr. Cullen
William Cullen
William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
William Cullen
William Cullen
William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
thanking him for his letter of introduction to John Hunter
John Hunter
John Hunter may refer to:* John Hunter , former bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman* John Hunter , Canadian Liberal MP for Parkdale, 1949–1957...
(1728–1793) whom he described as “the most agreeable and at the same time the most useful acquaintance I ever met with.” He also visited and observed the London surgeon Percivall Pott
Percivall Pott
Sir Percivall Pott London, England) was an English surgeon, one of the founders of orthopedy, and the first scientist to demonstrate that a cancer may be caused by an environmental carcinogen.-Life:...
(1714–1788) to whom he would later dedicate his treatise on ulcers. Bell’s interest in science is evident from his description of a lecture which he attended at the Royal Society given by Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
. Priestley’s suggestion that atmospheric air contained fixed air (carbon dioxide) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen) clearly made an impression on Bell who noted from the lecture that “air can be spoiled by one or more animals breathing it in a confined space and become unfit for purposes of life”
Surgical Practice in Edinburgh
On return to Edinburgh he set up in surgical practice and within a year, at the age of 24, was elected one of four attendant surgeons to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Surgeons attended in rotation and Bell managed to remain a surgeon to the Infirmary for eighteen years, an unusually long period. This may have been because of his lifelong friendship with James GregoryJames Gregory (physician)
James Gregory FRSE FRCPE was a Scottish physician and classicist.-Early life and education:He was the eldest son of John Gregory and Elizabeth Forbes , and was born in Aberdeen...
, the Professor of Physic, and the most influential member of the Infirmary Board of Management. In 1800 there was pressure from younger members of the College of Surgeons to change the system of appointment of surgeons to the Infirmary, making shorter appointments so that more junior surgeons might gain Infirmary experience. At that time, now well established in practice, Bell was content to step down, but he wrote to the College setting out the case for ‘permanent appointments’ to the Infirmary rotation, a view which had been also promoted by Gregory. Of the 23 members of the College of Surgeons asked to vote on the matter, not one supported Bell’s proposal. John Bell
John Bell (surgeon)
John Bell was a Scottish anatomist and surgeon.Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland; an elder brother of Sir Charles Bell...
(1763–1820), a successful teacher of anatomy in his own extra-mural school and an accomplished Edinburgh surgeon (but not related to Benjamin Bell), failed to gain appointment to the Infirmary rota, and began to campaign against what he saw as the injustice of the rota system. As part of this he wrote criticising Gregory’s views 9, and this brought the Bells, Benjamin and John into conflict. This feud was at the heart of much of the criticism to which Benjamin Bell was subjected by his namesake.
In 1775 Bell fell from horseback and sustained injuries that were to force him to take an enforced rest from surgical practice for some two years. This rest was to prove fortuitous, for it allowed him time to reflect and to write, and his relatively wealthy background enabled him to do this without financial concerns. To further develop his interest in farming during this period of recuperation, he took the lease of Liberton Farm situated some two miles south of the centre of Edinburgh.
Returning to what was to prove a highly successful career as a surgeon in Edinburgh, Bell went into practice with James Gibson (d1815) who was to become president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1778-79. Later he formed another surgical partnership with James Russell (1754–1836) and Andrew Wardrop (d1823). Bell, Wardop and Russell became the leading surgical practice in Scotland with a wide referral base. Wardrop reckoned Bell “… was a successful operator and during many years was more employed than any surgeon in Scotland”. He went so far as to boast of his partner that “…no one could die contented without having consulted Benjamin Bell.”
In 1783 Benjamin Bell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
.
Bell's contributions to surgery
Benjamin Bell is considered by many to have been the first Scottish scientific surgeon. This reputation was based largely on his influential textbook "A System of Surgery". He can be regarded as a 'scientific' surgeon because of his rational thought processes which are apparenent in his treatises, particularly his Treatise on Gonorrhoea virulenta and Lues venerea (1793). Another treatise, The Theory and Management of Ulcers, was first published in 1778 and is still considered one of the classics of 18th Century physiology. An edition was published in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in 1797.http://www.marshall.edu/library/speccoll/virtual_museum/hoffman/bell_benjamin.asp
A System of Surgery
This textbook was popular, infuential and authoratative.The System appeared in six volumes between 1783 and 1788. By 1801 no fewer than seven editions had been published, and it went on to Italian, French, Spanish, German and three American editions. Its popularity was because it was comprehensive, made use of up-to-date published material from all over Europe, and because of Bell's reputation as a surgeon. was another advocate of the routine use of opiumOpium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
to relieve post-operative pain, stating: to be able to alleviate the misery of those who are obliged to submit to dangerous operations must afford the biggest gratification to every practitioner. Bell also credited his fellow Scot
Scot
A Scot is a member of an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland, derived from the Latin name of Irish raiders, the Scoti.Scot may also refer to:People with the given name Scot:* Scot Brantley , American football linebacker...
, James Moore, with developing a clamp to produce nerve compression in the arm or leg to provide analgesia for amputation
Amputation
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
. http://www.rcsed.ac.uk/journal/svol3_2/3020008.html
He was also a close friend of the British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
- who had at sometime offered Bell a title of Lord. Bell politely refused.http://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst1394.html
Farming
Bell' family background was in farming, and, during his two year break from surgery after his accident in 1775 when he rented Liberton farm two miles from central Edinburgh, his interest in the subject was revived. He frequently wrote to his father for agricultural advice.Property dealings
Bell bought the lands of Newington in 1803 and was responsible for the development of the area. He built Newington House for himself just before his death. Although this house was demolished in 1966, the streets around where it lay include Blacket Avenue and Middleby Street named after the Dumfriesshire localities of Bell's youth. His son, George, commissioned architect James Gillespie GrahamJames Gillespie Graham
James Gillespie Graham was a Scottish architect, born in Dunblane. He is most notable for his work in the Scottish baronial style, as at Ayton Castle, and he worked in the Gothic Revival style, in which he was heavily influenced by the work of Augustus Pugin...
(1776–1855) to prepare plans for housing and the subdivision of the land into plots.
Bell's Dynasty
Bell was the progenitor of one of the great Edinburgh surgical dynasties. His son Joseph, grandson Benjamin and great-grandson Joseph (1837–1911) were all surgeons in Edinburgh, and all became presidents of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. His great-grandson Joseph BellJoseph Bell
Joseph Bell, JP, DL, FRCS was a famous Scottish lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in the 19th century. He is perhaps best known as an inspiration for the literary character Sherlock Holmes....
(1837–1911), was known for his diagnostic abilities which depended on his ability to observe minute details. This inspired a young Edinburgh medical student Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
(1859–1930) to base a fictional detective Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
on Joseph Bell.