Report on the Iron Manufacture of the United States, and a Comparison of It with That of Great Britain (1877).
BELL, Robert (1800-67). An Irish writer. The son of a magistrate, he was born in Cork, January 16, 1800, and when very young obtained an appointment in a Government department in Dublin. He was for a time editor of the Government journal, The Patriot. In 1828 he removed to London, and was appointed editor of The Atlas newspaper. In 1838. in conjunction with Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton and Dr. Lardner, he started The Monthly Chronicle, and afterwards became editor of it. In 1841 he retired from The Atlas. For Lardner's Cyclopædia Bell wrote "The History of Russia" (1836-38), and The Lives of the English Poets (1839), completed Southey's Naval History (1837), left unfinished by the author, and wrote a continuation of Mackintosh's History of England (1853). At the London theatres three five-act comedies were produced by him. He was author, also, of a collection of tales, Hearts and Altars (1852); a novel, The Ladder of Gold (1856); Life of Canning (1846); Outlines of China (1845); Memorials of the Civil War, consisting of the Fairfax Correspondence (1847); and Wayside Pictures Through France, Belgium, and Holland (1858). But the work by which he is chiefly remembered is an annotated edition of the English poets (24 vols., 1854-57). He died April 12, 1867.
BELL, Robert (1841—). A Canadian geologist, born in Toronto, Ont. He studied at McGill University, and in 1857 was appointed to the staff of the Canadian Geological Survey, of which he became the senior member and assistant director. Throughout the Dominion he has made very extensive topographical surveys and explorations. He was medical officer and geologist on the Alert Expedition to Hudson's Strait and Bay in 1885; in 1888-89 was a member of the commission appointed by the Government of Ontario to report on the mineral resources of the province; and in 1895 surveyed the Noddawai River (emptying into James Bay), the western and chief branch of which was named after him. In addition to this work, he was also, in 1863-67, professor of chemistry and natural sciences in Queen's University (Kingston). He has published upward of 180 papers and reports on scientific subjects.
BELL, Thomas (1792-1880). An English naturalist. He was born at Poole, and died at Selborne. From 1816 to 1861 he lectured on dental surgery and comparative anatomy at Guy's Hospital, London. In 1836 he became professor of zoölogy in King's College, London. He was the author of several works on British animals, especially History of British Quadrupeds (London, 1837; revised edition, 1874), and similar works on Reptiles (1830) and Crustacea (1853). He played an important part in the development of scientific societies in London. At the age of 70 he retired to Selborne, where he issued in 1877 a classic edition of White's Natural History of Selborne. His original scientific writings relate chiefly to fossil Chelonia and Crustacea. See Nature, Vol. XXI., pages 473, 499 (London, 1880).
BEL'LA, Stefano Della (1610-64). An Italian etcher, born in Florence. He studied in Rome in 1634-37, and went to Paris in 1640, remaining there until 1050, and was commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu to engrave the famous events of the early reign of Louis XIII. He executed upward of 1400 different subjects — battles, sea-pieces, landscapes, and animals, all of which are characterized by freedom and delicacy, and give evidence of high imagination and much careful manipulation. They are also of great value for the knowledge of the history of civilization in the Seventeenth Century. One of his most admired works is a view of the Pont-Neuf, Paris.
BEL'LACOO'LA. A detached Salishan tribe, living upon the Bellacoola River, which empties into Bentinck Arm, about latitude 52° N., British Columbia. Their name is of Kwakiutl origin. Epidemics and diseases introduced by the white men have now reduced the tribe to a few hundred souls.
BEL'LADON'NA (for derivation see below), Dwale, or Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna). A plant of the natural order Solanaceæ. It is an herbaceous perennial, growing up every year as a bush, from two to six feet high, with ovate entire leaves, and bell-shaped flowers of a lurid purple color, which are larger than those of the common harebell, stalked and solitary in the axils of the leaves. It produces berries of the size of a middle-sized cherry, which, when ripe, are of a shining black color, and of a sweetish and not nauseous taste, although the whole plant has a disagreeable, heavy smell. All parts of the plant are narcotic and poisonous, and fatal consequences not unfrequently follow from eating its berries. Its roots have sometimes been mistaken for parsnips. The name Belladonna, 'fair lady,' is supposed to have originated in the employment of the juice for staining the skin or from its power of dilating the pupils and giving a glistening appearance to the eyes. The name 'dwale' is thought to be derived from the same root with the French deuil, mourning — an allusion to the same qualities that have obtained for the plant the appellation of deadly nightshade. Others assert that it comes from the Anglo-Saxon and is connected with the word dull, on account of its stupefying effects. Atropa is from Atropos, one of the Fates. The other species of Atropa are South American. Belladonna owes its powerful effect on the animal system to the alkaloid hyosycamine (see Atropine).
BELLADONNA LILY. See Amaryllis.
BELLAGIO, bel-la'jd
(It. bello, beautiful + agio, rest, repose, comfort). A village of the Province of Como, north Italy, celebrated by historians, artists, and novelists. It is at the most beautiful point on Lake Como, where a wooded promontory separates the two arms of the lake (Map: Italy, D 2). It has regular steamboat communication with Como and with Lecco. It contains excellent hotels, beautiful gardens, an English church, and many magnificent villas. Population, in 1901 (commune), 3536.
BELLAIR, bel-lar'.
Old and Young. Characters in The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter, a comedy by Etherege.
BELLAIRE. A city in Belmont County, Ohio, on the Ohio River, five miles south of Wheeling,
