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Bell a just idea of their importance when he wrote of them in a letter to his brother (November 1821) that they 'will hereafter put me beside Harvey.' Their importance was not perceived by all who heard of them, but they were not controverted as fiercely as Harvey's had been, and scientific men at once gave their author all the honour he had justly won. Brougham was at that time dashing like a comet among the constellations of science and literature, as well as through those of politics, and he was a warm friend of Bell. It was by his advice that the compliment of knighthood was paid to the discoverer of the functions of the nerves, to his great contemporary Herschel, and to some lesser men of science. Bell had already (1829) received the medal of the Royal Society for discoveries in science. The London University had been founded under the auspices of Brougham; and Bell, with Brougham's friend Horner, was persuaded to take office in the new institution. The differing views of its originators prevented the new university from flourishing. In the midst of trivial controversies learning was stifled, and what was to have been a great source of modern science and new learning dwindled into an examining board. Bell and Horner resigned in disgust. In 1832 Bell wrote a paper in the 'Philosophical Transactions' on the organs of voice, and in 1833 a Bridgewater treatise on the mechanism of the hand, illustrated by drawings of his own. In 1836, with Lord Brougham, he wrote annotations of Paley's 'Natural Theology.' He had besides written several books on surgery: in 1807 a 'System of Comparative Surgery;' in 1816, 1817, 1818, quarterly reports of cases in surgery: in 1820, 'Letters on Diseases of the Urethra;' in 1821, 'Illustrations of Great Operations;' in 1824, 'Observations on Injuries of the Spine and of the Thigh Bone,' and somewhat later a small popular work, 'a familiar treatise on the five senses.' Besides all this labour he lectured at his house, at the Middlesex Hospital (1812-36), in the school of Great Windmill Street (Prospectus, Lancet, ix. 27), at the College of Surgeons, and on several occasions elsewhere. He went in 1809 to Haslar Hospital to help to treat the wounded of Corunna, and in 1815 to Brussels to treat the wounded of Waterloo. When he went round his wards in the Middlesex Hospital, his method was to examine a patient with minute care and in silence before the students. Then he would retire a little way from the bed, and would give his opinion of the nature of the case, and of what the treatment ought to be, adding with particular emphasis his expectation as to the final result (communication from Rev. .) Like many great medical teachers of his day, he was abused in the numbers of the 'Lancet' (vol. v.) for reasons now difficult to discover, and not worth tracing out in detail. Bell was never completely at home in the medical world of London. In spite of his unceasing labours, perhaps partly in consequence of them, his practice did not increase in proportion to his merits, and when in 1836 he was offered the chair of surgery in the university of Edinburgh, he was glad to return to his early home. He there published in 1838 'Institutes of Surgery,' and in 1841 some 'Practical Essays.' These, like all his surgical works, are worth reading as the productions of close observation and considerable experience; but they are not of the same consequence as his physiological writings. The time he spent in the wards and at the bedside of patients was not lost to science, for the observations there made helped him to his great discoveries; but as an operating and consulting surgeon he does not stand higher than many of his contemporaries. A sensation of failing health was probably the chief reason for his retirement to Edinburgh. He still worked, but less strenuously, and in 1840 enjoyed a tour in Italy. A little more than a year later he was, as he said (letter, 24 April 1842), 'chained in activity' by terrible attacks of angina pectoris, and in one of these he died on the morning of 28 April 1842. He was staying at Hallow Park, near Worcester, and was buried in the churchyard of the parish. In Hallow church there is a tablet to his memory, with an English inscription by Lord Jeffrey.

The anxieties of life and the necessary abstraction of scientific musing made Bell at times seem grave; but his friends all agree in Lord Cockburn's statement about him: 'If ever I knew a generally and practically happy man, it was Sir Charles Bell.' 'He had,' says one of his friends, 'too profound a faith in the Providence who governed the world to be otherwise than deeply thankful for his lot.' The style of his scientific papers is sometimes involved, nor are happy turns of expression frequent in his popular works. His letters are his best compositions. He had a thorough enjoyment of literature and of music, and the intervals of his scientific work were always employed. Fishing was one of his favourite recreations. He kept White's 'Natural History of Selborne' on his table, and loved the sights and sounds of the country. He had married (3 June 1811) Marion, second daughter of Charles Shaw, Esq., of Ayr, and their marriage was one of