BELL, John, Scottish surgeon: b. Edin burgh, 12 May 1763; d. Rome, 15 April 1820. He was a brother of Sir Charles and George Joseph Bell, and after completing his profes sional education traveled for a short time in Russia and the north of Europe, and on his return began to deliver lectures on surgery and midwifery. These lectures, delivered between 1786 and 1796, were very highly esteemed and speedily brought him into practice as a consult ing and operating surgeon. The increase of his private practice, indeed, rendered it necessary for him, in 1796, to discontinue his lectures, and from that time forward he devoted himself to his patients and to the preparation of the sev eral publications of which he was the author. Patients came to him from all quarters, both of Scotland and England, and even from the Con tinent; and during that interval he performed some of the most delicate and difficult opera tions in surgery. The exclusion of visiting
surgeons from Edinburgh infinnary led to an acrimonious controversy between Bell and Pro fessor Gregory. Early in 1816 he was thrown by a spirited horse and never entirely recov ered from the effects of the accident. He was the author of 'The Anatomy of the Human Body' (1793-1802; 3d ed., with plates by Charles Bell, 1811); 'Engravings of the Bones, Muscles and Joints,' illustrating the first vol time of the 'Anatomy of the Human Body,' drawn and engraved by himself (1794, 3d ed.); 'Engravings of the Arteries,' illustrat ing the second volume of the 'Anatomy of the Human Body' (1801); 'Discourses on the Na ture and Cure of Wounds' (1795); 'The Prin ciples of Surgery' (1801-08).