BELL 499 and surgery in the London college of physi- cians, where his lectures were attended both by pupils and practitioners, and where he at- tracted crowds by a series of discourses on the evidence of design in the anatomy of the hu- man body. He published about this time two essays, " On the Nervous Circle," and " On the Eye," having reference to the theory of a sixth sense, and a treatise on "Animal Mechanics," for the society for the diffusion of useful knowl- edge. Being invited to take part in the great argument published by the bequest of the earl of Bridgewater, he wrote the treatise on " The Hand," and he soon after assisted Lord Brough- am in illustrating Paley's "Natural Theology." In 1836 he accepted the chair of surgery in the Edinburgh university, and afterward visited Italy, making observations, with which he en- riched a new edition of the " Anatomy of Ex- pression." He died soon after returning to England. BELL, George Joseph, a Scottish lawyer, born . at Fountainbridge, near Edinburgh, March 26, 1T70, died in Edinburgh, Sept. 23, 1843. His first legal publication was a treatise on the laws of bankruptcy, which in 1810 was en- larged and published under the title of " Com- mentaries on the Laws of Scotland." His sub- sequent works on the law of Scotland are standard text books in the courts of that coun- try. He was at the head of two commissions for improving the administration of civil justice in Scotland, and from the year 1821 was pro- fessor in the university of Edinburgh. BELL, Henry, a Scottish inventor, born at Tpr- phichen, near Linlithgow, April 7, 1767, died March 14, 1830. A millwright by trade, he went to London when his apprenticeship ex- pired, and while in Mr. Rennie's service con- ceived the idea of propelling vessels by steam, and in 1800 and 1803 made unsuccessful appli- cations to the admiralty for assistance. He then returned to Scotland, and in 1811 launch- ed a boat on the Clyde, making a steam engine for it with his own hands. The first trial took place on the Clyde in January, 1812. Three- horse power was successfully applied at first, subsequently increased to six. His first boat is preserved in the museum of Glasgow univer- sity. The city of Glasgow settled a small an- nuity on him, and the British government gave a small pension to his widow. A monument to his memory has been erected on the rock of Dunglass, a promontory on the Clyde, 2J m. from Dumbarton. BELL, John, a Scottish physician and travel- ler, born at Antennony, in the west of Scot- land, hi 1691, died July 1, 1780. At the age of 23 he received the degree of M. D., and went to St. Petersburg, where he presented letters to the court physician of Peter the Great, Dr. Areskin, through whose influence he received an appointment as surgeon to an embassy about to proceed to Persia. Leaving St. Petersburg in July, 1715, he did not reach Ispahan, where the shah held his court, till March, 1717. He returned to St. Petersburg' Dec. 30, 1718. He departed in July, 1719, attached to an embassy to China, through Moscow, Siberia, and the great Tartar deserts, to the great wall of China, reaching Peking in November, 1720. After residing half a year in Peking, he returned to Moscow, which he reached in January, 1722. The czar having made him his chief physician, in place of Areskin, now dead, he joined in the expedition "headed by Peter himself to as- sist the shah of Persia in routing the rebel Af- ghans, and returned with him. Soon afterward he revisited Scotland, but was at St. Peters- burg in December, 1737, when, negotiations for peace between Russia and Turkey having failed, he was sent to Constantinople with new proposals, and returned to St. Petersburg in May, 1738. He finally settled as a merchant in Constantinople, where he married in 1746, and soon after returned to Scotland, fixing his resi- dence on his estate of Antermony. His " Trav- els from St. Petersburg in Russia to Various Parts of Asia" appeared in 1763 (2 vols. 4to). BELL, John, a Scottish surgeon, born in Ed- inburgh, May 12, 1763, died in Rome, April 15, 1820. He studied for his profession at the medical schools of his native city, taught a pri- vate school of anatomy, and gave lectures on surgical anatomy. His ideas gave offence to the established professors, but notwithstanding an active opposition, his merits secured him a large class of pupils. However, his rivals man- aged to exclude him and his class from the public infirmary, in which he had been accus- tomed to practise gratuitously, and then he gave up his lectures, and addressed himself to private practice only. His works are : " Anat- omy," afterward completed by his brother, Sir Charles Bell ; " Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds" (2 vols. 8vo) ; and " The Principles of Surgery (3 vols. 4to). Besides these he wrote letters on professional educa- tion, and a posthumous work on Italy. BELL, John, an American" lawyer and states- man, born near Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 18, 1797, died at Cumberland Iron Works, Tenn., Sept. 10, 1869. He was the son of a farmer in mod- erate circumstances, who gave him a good ed- ucation at Cumberland college (now Nashville university). He was admitted to the bar in 1816, settled at Franklin, Williamson county, and was elected to the state senate in 1817, when only 20 years old. He soon saw his error in entering so early into public life, and declining a reelection, devoted himself for the next nine years to his profession. In 1826 he became a candidate for congress against Felix Grundy, one of the most popular men in the state, who had the powerful support of Andrew Jackson, then a candidate for the presidency. Mr. Bell was nevertheless elected in 1827, by 1,000 majority, and continued a member of the house of representatives for 14 years. Though at first an ardent supporter of the doctrine of free trade, he was led to change his views, and afterward was ever an earnest advocate of the
