Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/179

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BELL 7

"The Physiology and Pathology of the Duodenum." ("Peninsular Medical Jour- nal," vol. xi., p. 106)

"Anesthesia During Sleep." ("Pen- insular and Independent Medical Jour- nal," vol. ii.)

"Congenital Clonic Spasm of the Ad- ductor Muscles of the Thighs and Exten- sors of the Feet." ("Michigan Uni- versity Medical Journal," vol. ii.)

"Delivery of the Extrauterine Fetus." (" Michigan University Medical Journal," vol. ii.)

"On Turning of the Fcetus in Utero by External Manipulation." ("Penin- sular and Independent Medical Journal," vol. ii.) L. C.

(The Physicians and Surgeons of the Un ited States, by W. B. Atkinson, Philadelphia, Pa., Charles Robson, 1878.) (Representative Men in Mich., West. Biographical Publishing Company, Cincinnati, O., 1878, vol. iii., (Trans. Mich. State Med. Soc, 1879.) (Trans. Amer. Med. Ass., vol. xxx,) (Mich. Med. News, Nov. 10, 1S7S.)

Bell, John (1796-1872).

John Bell, a Philadelphia surgeon, was born in 1796, died on August 19, 1872, and 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 Physi- cians of Philadelphia in 1S27 ; was a mem- ber of the Philadelphia Medical Society; lecturer on the institutes of medicine, Philadelphia Medicical Institute; profes- sor 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 Trea- tise on Baths and .Mineral Waters;" a history of the chemical composition and medicinal properties of the chief medical springs of the United States and Europe. "A practical Dictionary of Materia Medica." "Dietetical and Medical Hy- drology" and, with Dr. D. L. Condie, "A Report of the College of Physicians to the Board of Health," which contained all the material facts in the history of epi- demic cholera. He also edited "Stokes' Lectures on the Theory and Practice of


Physic" and Dr. Andrew Combe's "Trea- tise on Children."

Communication from Dr. Francis R. Packard.

Bell, Luther Vose (1S06-1862).

An alienist and army surgeon, he was born December 30, 1806, a son of Samuel Bell, who filled the offices of Chief Justice of New Hampshire, Gover- nor, and United States Senator; a de- scendant of Scotch-Irish stock who settled the town of Londonderry.

When twelve years of age he entered Bowdoin College and graduated in 1823, receiving his medical degree at Dart- mouth College in 1826 and afterwards pursuing his medical studies in Europe. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Kings College, Nova Scotia in 1S44, and by Amherst College in 1855.

He first practised in the towns of Brunswick and Derry, New Hampshire, and in 1834 gained the Boylston prize medal for a dissertation on "The Dietetic Regimen best fitted for the Inhabitants of New England," and in the following year published an essay on the "Ex- ternal Exploration of Diseases" ("Li- brary of Practical Medicine," vol. ix). He subsequently issued a small volume entitled "An Attempt to Investigate some Obscure and Undecided Doctrines in Relation to Small-pox and Varioliform Diseases."

About this time, influenced by the success that had attended the establish- ment of the State Lunatic Hospital at Worcester, Massachusetts, he sought to ameliorate the condition of the insane in New Hampshire, and to that end entered political life as a member of the general court, placing himself at the head of a propaganda which led eventually to the establishment of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane. While attending his second session of the Legislature and still pressing that object, he was ap- pointed, late in 1S36, physician and super- intendent of the McLean Asylum for the Insane, at Somerville, near Boston. In 1845, yielding to the solicitation of the trustees of the Butler Hospital for the