Benjamin Bell

Benjamin Bell of Hunthill FRSE FRCSEd (6 September 1749 – 5 April 1806) is considered to be the first Scottish scientific surgeon. He is commonly described as the father of the Edinburgh school of surgery, or the first of the Edinburgh scientific surgeons. He published medical works of significance, notably his surgical textbook A System of Surgery which became a best seller throughout Europe and in America. His treatise on venereal disease was the first to suggest that syphilis and gonorrhea were different diseases, a hypothesis which was not accepted by mainstream medicine until many decades later. Bell's main contribution to surgical practice was his adage 'save skin', which led to improved rates of wound healing in operations like mastectomy and limb amputation. He was also an early advocate of routine pain relief in surgery.

Benjamin Bell was born in Dumfries on 6 September 1749, the eldest surviving child in a family of 15 children. His father George Bell (1722–1813) farmed at Woodhouselees, a mile south of the village of Canonbie in Dumfriesshire. In addition to farming, George Bell was involved in a series of business ventures which met with mixed success. This background of modest wealth was to prove important for Benjamin in later life, allowing him to visit surgeons in London and Paris and enabling him to take time away from his surgical practice to write a major textbook. The family tradition in agriculture was to re-emerge towards the end of his life. They owned Blackett House in Middlebie Parish (Dumfriesshire), which was later sold to fund the education of the family. Benjamin's early education was at Dumfries Grammar school.

He became an apprentice to James Hill (1703-1776), a surgeon in Dumfries, before moving to Edinburgh in 1766 to study medicine at Edinburgh University under the tutelage of some of the most inspiring medical teachers of the day, including Alexander Monro (Secundus; 1733–1817) the anatomist, Joseph Black (1728–99) the chemist and John Hope (1725–86) the botanist. In November 1767 he was appointed dresser in the surgical wards of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and surgeons' clerk 2 years later. He visited London and Paris, writing to his father that had he been planning a career as a physician he would have been happy to stay in Edinburgh, "but for a surgeon I assure you Edinburgh comes greatly short of either Paris or London and for that reason Dr. Monro and any others that I have spoken to here upon the subject approve of the scheme [the Paris visit] very much". In 1770 after passing the necessary examinations, he was elected a freeman surgeon-apothecary of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh later the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. In 1772 Bell was in London from where he wrote to Dr. Cullen thanking him for his letter of introduction to John Hunter (1728–1793) whom he described as "the most agreeable and at the same time the most useful acquaintance I ever met with." He also visited and observed the London surgeon Percivall Pott (1714–1788) to whom he would later dedicate his treatise on ulcers. Bell's interest in science is evident from his description of a lecture which he attended at the Royal Society given by Joseph Priestley. Priestley's suggestion that atmospheric air contained fixed air (carbon dioxide) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen) clearly made an impression on Bell who noted from the lecture that "air can be spoiled by one or more animals breathing it in a confined space and become unfit for purposes of life"

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