Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/822

BELL. stitution he delivered clinical lectures, and raised it to the highest repute. To obtain a knowledge of gunshot wounds, he twice relinquished his London engagements — the first time after the battle of Corunna in 1809, when he visited the wounded landed on the southern coasts of England, and housed in Haslar Hospital; the other after the battle of Waterloo, when he repaired to Brussels and was put in charge of a hospital with 300 beds. In 1824 he was appointed senior professor of anatomy and surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons. London, and subsequently a member of the Council. On the establishment of the London University, now University College, in 1826, Bell was placed at the head of the department of medicine. He delivered the general opening lectures in his own section, and followed it by a regular course of characteristic lectures on physiology, but soon resigned and confined himself to his extensive practice, which was chiefly in nervous affections.

In 1829 he was the recipient of the Royal Society's medal for his discoveries in science. In 1831 he was one of the five eminent men in science knighted on the accession of William IV., the others being Sir John Herschel, Sir David Brewster, Sir John Leslie, and Sir James Ivory. In 1836 he was elected professor of surgery in the University of Edinburgh. He was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and a member of some other learned bodies. He was author of various works on surgery and the nervous system, and editor, jointly with Lord Brougham, of Paley's Evidences of Natural Religion. Bell was one of the eight distinguished men selected to write the celebrated Bridgewater Treatises, his contribution being on The Hand, Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments, as Evincing Design (1834). Among his principal works are: The Anatomy of the Brain Explained in a Series of Engravings (1802); A Series of Engravings Explaining the Course of the Nerves (1804); Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting (1806; posthumous edition, much enlarged, entitled The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as Connected with the Fine Arts, 1844); A System of Operative Surgery (1807-09; 2d ed. 1814); Anatomy of the Brain (1811), in which he states his discovery that nerves of sensation are distinct from those of motion; Dissertation on Gunshot Wounds (1814); Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body (1816); various papers on the nervous system, which originally appeared in the Philosophical Transactions: Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the Human Body (1824); Institutes of Surgery (1838); Animal Mechanics, contributed to the Library for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1828); Nervous System of the Human Body (1830). Consult Correspondence of Sir Charles Bell (London, 1870).

BELL,. The name under which Charlotte Brontë first wrote.

BELL, The pen-name of Emily Brontë.

BELL, (1770-1843). A Scottish lawyer, brother of Sir Charles Bell. He was born in Edinburgh, and was admitted to the bar in 1791. Acknowledged one of the greatest masters of commercial Jurisprudence of his time, and in particular of that department which relates to the laws of bankruptcy, he was in 1822 appointed professor of Scottish law in Edinburgh University, and in 1823 a member of the commission for inquiring into Scottish judicial proceedings. Subsequently he was a member of a commission to examine into and simplify the mode of procedure in the Court of Session. On the report drawn up by Bell was founded the Scottish Judicature Act, prepared by him, which effected many important changes in the forms of process in the superior courts of Scotland. Appointed in 1831 one of the clerks of the Court of Session, he was in 1833 chairman of the royal commission to examine into the state of the law in general. He also prepared a bill for the establishment of a court of bankruptcy in Scotland. His principal work, Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland, and on the Principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence (1826, 7th ed. 1870), attained the highest reputation, ranking with the Institutes of Lord Stair. He also published Principles of the Law of Scotland (1839).

BELL, (1767-1830). A Scottish engineer, who probably introduced steam navigation into Europe. He was born at Torphichen Mill, Linlithgow, and in 1783 was apprenticed to his uncle, a millwright. He was instructed in ship-modeling at Borrowstounness, and completed his knowledge of mechanics at Bell's Hill. Removing to London, he was there employed by the celebrated Rennie. About 1790 he returned to Glasgow, and in 1808 removed to Helensburgh, where he kept the principal inn and devoted himself to mechanical experiments, chiefly with the steam-engine. In January, 1812, a small vessel, called the Comet, with an engine constructed by Bell, was launched on the Clyde with success — the first on European waters. A monument has been erected to his memory at Dunglass Point, on the Clyde. See.

BELL, (1803-74). A Scottish lawyer and author. He was born in Glasgow, and studied at Edinburgh. In 1828 he founded the Edinburgh Literary Journal. He was admitted to the bar in 1832, was appointed sheriff' of Lanarkshire in 1838, and in 1867 sheriff-principal. He was a president of the Athenæum. a founder of the Royal Scotch Academy, and a lecturer before the Philosophical Institution. He was considered the best Scottish mercantile lawyer of his time. His publications included a vindication of Mary, Queen of Scots (1830); Summer and Winter Hours (1831); My Old Portfolio (1832) — both collected by Bell from the Literary Journal — and Romances and Minor Poems (1866).

BELL, (1807-68). An American naval officer, born in North Carolina. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1823; was for many years connected with the East India Squadron, and in 1856 commanded a vessel of the squadron which destroyed the barrier forts, near Canton, China. In 1862 he was appointed fleet-captain of the West Gulf Squadron, and took a prominent part in the passage of Forts Saint Philip and Jackson, and the capture of New Orleans. He was, for a time in 1863, in command of the West Gulf Squadron. In 1865 he was assigned to the command of the East India Squadron, and in 1866 was promoted to be rear-admiral. He was drowned at the mouth of the Osaka River, Japan.