Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/112

BELL near Vera Cruz. He contracted yellow-fever on board the frigate Mississippi, and was ill for six weeks. His last sea-service was on the west coast of Africa, on board the flagship Germantown, beginning December, 1850, lasting two years and four months. He had a brief leave, then served on the receiving ship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; in 1854 he was promoted passed assistant surgeon. On October 30, 1855, he resigned from the Navy.

Being already a resident of Brooklyn, he began there the successful practice of medicine. The next year yellow-fever prevailed on Bay Ridge and Fort Hamilton; he worked with (q.v), physician-in-chief of the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, to aid the poor who were sick with the disease and to prevent its spread.

Bell was the first to discover the effect of steam as a disinfectant and to use it on the vessels Vixen and Mahones of Tuxpan, Mexico, in 1848.

He was a member of the National Quarantine and Sanitary Conventions, 1857–1860, and chairman of the committee and formulated the report on national and international quarantine regulations, adopted by the convention in Boston, 1860. During the first year of the Civil War he was medical superintendent of the floating hospital for the care of yellow-fever in the lower bay, New York, and he drafted the law for the New York quarantine establishment; he designated the site of the quarantine. In 1870–1873, he was supervising commissioner of quarantine, appointed by Governor Hoffman. In 1879 he was made one of the inspectors of quarantine and was assigned to the Atlantic Coast from Brunswick, Georgia, to Norfolk, Virginia; later to New Orleans and Memphis.

Bell was an active member of the American Public Health Association from its beginning, and was a large contributor to its proceedings; he discussed school hygiene, sanitary inspection, epidemic diseases, disinfection, quarantine, and allied subjects. In 1873 he established The Sanitarian, a journal in the interests of public health.

His writings include two books, "Knowledge of Little Things" (1860) and "Climatology and Mineral Waters of the United States" (1885), as well as many articles, chiefly on sanitary subjects, to periodical literature. In 1864 he won the "Merrit H. Cash prize" of the New York State Medical Society; another prize essay was "The Physiological Conditions and Sanitary Requirements of School-Houses and School Life" (1887).

In 1842 Bell married Julia Ann, daughter of Arcillus and Jerusha Hamlin, of Newtown, Connecticut. They had three daughters and three sons; one son was a physician, Harry Kent Bell, of New York.

Bell died at his home in Brooklyn October 16, 1911October 15, 1911 [sic].



Bell, John (1796–1872)

John Bell, a Philadelphia surgeon, was born in Ireland in 1796, and died on August 19, 1872. He graduated M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1817. There are not many details of his life available, but he was elected to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1827; was a member of the Philadelphia Medical Society; lecturer on the institutes of medicine, Philadelphia Medical Institute; professor of the same in the Medical College of Ohio, and physician to the City Hospital.

He did some good work as a writer and editor, his first book being "A Treatise on Baths and Mineral Waters" (1831); "A History of the Chemical Composition and Medicinal Properties of the Chief Medical Springs of the United States and Canada" (1855); "A Practical Dictionary of Materia Medica"; "Dietetical and Medical Hydrology" and, with Dr. David Francis Condie, "A Report of the College of Physicians to the Board of Health," which contained all the material facts in the history of epidemic cholera. He also edited "Stokes' Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic" and Dr. Andrew Combe's "Treatise on Children."



Bell, Luther Vose (1806–1862)

An alienist and army surgeon, he was born at Francestown, N. H., December 20, 1806, a son of Samuel Bell, who filled the offices of chief justice of New Hampshire, governor, and United States senator; also he was a. descendant of Scotch-Irish stock who settled the town of Londonderry, N. H.

Luther V. Bell was a great citizen in his generation. He practised extensively as physician and surgeon in New Hampshire, becoming a pioneer in introducing a better era for the insane, as well as establishing a better jurisprudence for their care and treatment in New England. He stood on a pedestal in the community in a day of great men.

When twelve years of age he entered