Images de page
PDF
ePub

BELL.

the compound is poured into a mould. Authorities | Benedict, Abbot of Wearmouth, brought one from differ as to the best proportions of the copper and tin. Some give 80 parts of copper to 20 of tin, or 4 to 1; others state the proportions as being 3 to 1. In the reign of Henry III., of England, it would seem to have been 2 to 1; and the small bronze bells discovered by Mr. Layard in the palace of Nimroud, are found to contain 10 of copper to 1 of tin. Hand-bells are often made of brass, antimony alloyed with tin, German silver,

[ocr errors][merged small]

real silver, and gold. The notion that in old times silver was mixed with bell-metal to sweeten the tone, is a mistake. Silver, in any quantity, would injure the tone. The quality of a bell depends not only on the composition of the metal it is made of, but very much also on its shape, and on the proportions between its height, width, and thickness; for which the bell-founder has rules derived from experience, and confirmed by science. The pitch of a bell is higher the smaller it is. For a peal of four bells to give the pure chord of ground tone (key-note), third, fifth, and octave, the diameters require to be as 30, 24, 20, 15, and the weights as 80, 41, 24, 10. A less quan

tity of metal than is due to the calibre of the bell though giving the same note, produces a meagre harsh sound; and the real or fancied superiority in dignity of tone of some old bells, is ascribed to a greater weight of metal having been allowed for the same note than modern economy would dictate. Bells have been cast of steel, some of which have had a tone nearly equal in fineness to that of the best bell-metal but deficient in length, having less vibration. Some have also been cast of glass, with a considerable thickness of the material; and these give an extremely fine sound, but are too brittle to stand the continued use of a clapper.

From a remote antiquity, cymbals and handbells were used in religious ceremonies. In Egypt, it is certain that the feast of Osiris was announced by ringing bells; Aaron, and other Jewish high priests, wore golden bells attached to their vestments; and in Athens, the priests of Cybele used bells in their rites. The Greeks employed them (koda) in camps and garrison; and the Romans announced the hour of bathing and of business by the tintinnabulum. The introduction of bells into Christian churches is usually ascribed to Paulinus, Bishop of Nola in Campania (400 A. D.); but there is no evidence of their existence for a century later. That they were first made in Campania, is inferred from the name given to them-campana; hence campanile, the bell-tower. Their use in churches and monasteries soon spread through Christendom. They were introduced into France about 550; and

Italy for his church about 680. Pope Sabinian (600) ordained that every hour should be announced by sound of bell, that the people might be warned of the approach of the hora canonica, or hours of devotion. Bells came into use in the East in the 9th c., and in Switzerland and Germany in the 11th. Most of the bells first used in Western Christendom seem to have been hand-bells. Several examples, some of them, it is believed, as old as the 6th c., are still preserved in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. They are made of thin plates of hammered iron, bent into a four-sided form, fastened with rivets, and brazed or bronzed. Perhaps the most remarkable is that which is said to have belonged to St. Patrick, called the Clog-an-eadhachta Phatriac, or 'The bell of Patrick's Will.' It is 6 inches high, 5 inches broad, and 4 inches deep, and is kept in a case or shrine of brass, enriched with gems and with gold and silver filigree, and made (as an inscription in Irish shews) between the years 1091 and 1105. The bell itself is believed to be mentioned in the Annals of Ulster as early as the year 552. Engravings as well of the bell as of its shrine, with a history of both, by the Rev. Dr. Reeves of Lusk, were published at Belfast (where the relic is preserved) in 1850. Some of the Scotch bells, of the same primitive type, are figured and described in the Illustrated Catalogue of the Archæological Museum at Edinburgh in 1856 (Edin. 1859). The four-sided bell of St. Gall, an Irish missionary, who died about 646, is still shewn

[graphic]
[graphic]

St. Ninian's Bell, as figured in the above work. in the monastery of the city which bears his mame in Switzerland. Church-bells were suspended either in the steeples or church-towers, or in special belltowers. They were long of comparatively small size: the bell which a king presented to the church of Orleans in the 11th c., and which was remarkable in its age, weighed only 2600 pounds. In the 13th c., much larger bells began to be cast, but it was not until the 15th c. that they reached really considerable dimensions. The bell 'Jacqueline' of Paris, cast in 1300, weighed 15,000 pounds; another Paris bell, cast in 1472, weighed 25,000; the famous bell of Rouen, cast in 1501, weighed 36,364 pounds. The largest bell in the world is the Great Bell or Monarch of Moscow, above 21 feet in height It was cast and diameter, and weighing 193 tons. in 1734, but fell down during a fire in 1737, was injured, and remained sunk in the earth till 1837, when it was raised, and now forms the dome of a chapel made by excavating the space below it. Another Moscow bell, cast in 1819, weighs 80 tons. The Great Bell at Pekin, 14 feet high, with a diameter of 13 feet, weighs 53 tons; those of Olmütz, Rouen, and Vienna, nearly 18 tons; that first cast for the New Palace at Westminster (but cracked),

BELL.

14 tons; that of the Roman Catholic cathedral | the body.'.... The tolling of the passing-bell was at Montreal (cast 1847) 13 tons; 'Great Peter,' retained at the Reformation; and the people were instructed that its use was to admonish the living, and excite them to pray for the dying.' But 'by the beginning of the 18th c., the passing-bell, in the proper sense of the term, had almost ceased to be heard. The tolling, indeed, continued in the old fashion; but it took place after the death, instead of before.' The practice of slowly and solemnly tolling church-bells at deaths, or while funerals are being conducted, is still a usage in various parts of the country, more particularly as a mark of respect for the deceased. There is another use of the bell in religion, called the pardon or ave bell, abolished among Protestants. The pardon-bell was tolled before and after divine service, for some time prior to the Reformation, to call the worshippers to a preparatory prayer to the Virgin Mary before engaging in the solemnity, and an invocation for pardon at its close. Bishop Burnet has recorded the order of a bishop of Sarum, in 1538, concerning the discontinuance of the custom. It runs thus: 'That the bell called the pardon or ave bell, which of longe tyme hathe been used to be tolled three tymes after and before divine service, be not hereafter in any part of my diocesse any more tollyd.'

[graphic]

Great Bell at Moscow.

placed in York Minster 1845, 10 tons; 'Great Tom' at Lincoln, 5 tons; Great Bell of St Paul's, 5 tons.-See an interesting article on Bells in the Quarterly Review for September 1854.

From old usage, bells are intimately connected with the services of the Christian church-so much so, that apparently from a spirit of opposition, the Mohammedans reject the use of bells, and substitute for them the cry of the Imaum from the top of the mosques. Associated in various ways with the ancient ritual of the church, bells acquired a kind of sacred character. They were founded with religious ceremonies (see Schiller's ode), and consecrated by a complete baptismal service; received names, had sponsors, were sprinkled with water, anointed, and finally covered with the white garment or chrisom, like infants. This usage is as old as the time of Alcuin, and is still practised in Roman Catholic countries. Bells had mostly pious inscriptions, often indicative of the wide-spread belief in the mysterious virtue of their sound. They were believed to disperse storms and pestilence, drive away enemies, extinguish fire, &c. A common inscription in the middle ages was:

Funera plango, fulgura frango, Sabbata pango, Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos. Among the superstitious usages recorded to have taken place in old St Paul's Church in London, was the 'ringinge the hallowed belle in great tempestes or lightninges' (Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii.). From this superstition possibly sprang the later notion, that when the great bell of St Paul's tolled (which it does only on the death of a member of the royal family, or a distinguished personage in the city) it turned all the beer sour in the neighbourhood-a fancy facetiously referred to by Washington Irving in the SketchBook. It would seem that the strange notion that bells are efficacious in dispelling storms, is by no means extinct. In 1852, the Bishop of Malta ordered the church-bells to be rung for an hour to allay a gale.

Church-bells were at one time tolled for those passing out of the world. It was a prevailing superstition that bells had the power to terrify evil spirits, no less than to dispel storms; and the custom_ of ringing what was called the passing-bell, 'grew [we quote the writer in the Quarterly Review above referred to] out of the belief that devils troubled the expiring patient, and lay in wait to afflict the soul the moment when it escaped from

The ringing of the curfew-bell, supposed to have been introduced into England by William the Conqueror, was a custom of a civil or political nature, and only strictly observed till the end of the reign of William Rufus. Its object was to warn the public to extinguish their fires and lights at eight o'clock in the evening. The eight o'clock ringing is still continued in many parts of England and Scotland.

As the liberty of public worship in places of meeting by themselves was yielded to dissenters, by the various governments of Europe, only with reluctance, the use of bells in chapels as a summons to divine service is not allowed except in the more enlightened countries. Speaking on this subject as referring to England, Lord Chief-justice Jervis, in giving judgment on a case tried at the Croydon assizes in 1851, says: 'With regard to the right of using bells in places of worship at all, by the common law, churches of every denomination have a full right to use bells, and it is a vulgar error to suppose that there is any distinction at the present time in this respect.' Throughout England and Scotland, however, comparatively few dissenting places of worship possess bells-still fewer have steeples. In towns and villages, the places of worship connected with the established church are commonly distinguished by some kind of belfry or bell-cote with bells. The ringing of these for divine service on Sundays, and on other occasions, forms the theme of many poetical allusions. The lines of Cowper will occur to recollection :

How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at interval, upon the ear,
In cadence sweet! now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on.

On all that belongs to the playing of bells in belfries, the inventive genius of the Netherlands long since arrived at proficiency. In some of the church-towers of that country, the striking, chiming, and playing of bells is incessant; the tinkling called chimes usually accompanies the striking of the hours, half-hours, and quarters; while the playing of tunes comes in as a special divertisement. In some instances, these playing bells are sounded by means of a cylinder, on the principle of a barrel-organ; but in others, they are played with keys by a musician. The French apply the term carillons to the tunes played

tune

BELL-BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE.

in the dark; usual to in the dark; and hung on cows, goats, or sheep, these animals can be easily found in the woods, or on the mountains. The charming poetical allusion of Gray

on bells; but in England, it is more usual to give the term carillons to the suites of bells which yield this kind of music. In this last sense, the tower of Les Halles, a large building at Bruges, is allowed to contain the finest carillons in Europe. There is a set of music bells of this kind in the steeple of St Giles's Church, Edinburgh. On these, tunes are played for an hour daily at certain seasons by a musician, who has a small salary from the civic corporation.

The term bell is infused in much of our convertional phraseology. To bear the bell,' is a phrase which we previously attempted to explain. At one period, a silver bell was the prize in horse-races in England, and the winning horse was said to bear away the bell. A less probable explanation is, that the phrase originated in the custom of one of the most forward sheep in a flock carrying a bell. Hence at least, 'bell-wether of the flock,' a phrase applied disparagingly to the leader of a party. The old fable, in which a sagacious mouse proposes that a bell shall be hung on the neck of the cat, so that all the mice may be duly warned of her approach, has given rise to the well-known phrase of "belling the cat.' Any one who openly and courageously does something to lower the offensive pretensions of a powerful and dangerous person, is said 'to bell the cat.'

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant foldswill be called to remembrance. In some parts of England, as many as eight small bells, forming an octave, are attached to the harness of wagon-horses; and the sounds produced are very pleasant. The Many of the church-towers in London are pro-attaching of bells in a fanciful manner to riding and vided with peals of bells, the ringing of which sleigh-horses is common in some parts of Europe and is a well-known practice. Eight bells, which form America. an octave or diatonic scale, make the most perfect peal. The variety of changes or permutations of order that can be rung on a peal, increases enormously with the number of bells: 3 bells allow 6 changes; 4 bells, 24; 12 bells give as many as 479,001,600 changes. The ringing of peals differs entirely from tolling-a distinction not sufficiently recognised in those places where an ordinary ringing of bells is made to suffice alike for solemn and festive occasions. The merry peal almost amounts to an English national institution. It consists in ringing the peal in moderately quick time, and in a certain order, without interruption, for the space of an hour. Merry peals are rung at marriages (if ordered), and at other festive events, the ringers being properly paid, according to use and wont. The English appear to be fond of these peals, and the associations which they call up. They actually make bequests to endow periodical peals in their parish church-towers; leaving, for example, so much money to ring a merry peal for an hour on a certain evening of the week, or to commemorate victories, or some other subjects of national rejoicing, in all time coming. One of the most celebrated peals of bells in London is that of St Mary-Le-Bow, Cheapside, which form the basis of a proverbial expression meant to mark emphatically a London nativity-Born within the sound of Bow-bells.' Brand speaks of a substantial endowment by a citizen for the ringing of Bow-bells early every morning to wake up the London apprentices. The ringing of bells in token of merriment is an old usage in England, as we learn from Shakspeare:

Get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself, And bid the merry bells ring to thy ear, That thou art crowned, not that I am dead. Sometimes, in compliment to compliment to a newly opened church, efforts are made to furnish its belfry with the proper number of bells, and to endow it at once for a weekly merry peal. It is common for some of the humbler class of parishioners to form a company of bell-ringers, acting under the authority of the church-wardens. Some endowments for peals embrace a supper, as well as a money-payment to the ringers; and of course, in such circumstances, there is little risk of the merry peal falling into desuetude. The consequence is, that what with marriages, and other festive celebrations, and as a result of endowments, merry peals are almost constantly going on somewhere in the metropolis-a fine proof, it may be said, of the naturally cheerful and generous temperament of the English, and of their respect for old customs. In Lancashire, the art of playing on bells is cultivated with much enthusiasm and success. The bells are small, and arranged on a movable stand; they are struck by a small instrument which is held in each hand of the performer, and produce a sweet tinkling kind

of music.

The custom of hanging bells on the necks of horses, cows, and other animals, was in use by the Romans, and survives till our own day. Hung on the necks of horses, the bells give notice of approach

The hanging of bells in dwelling-houses, and ringing them by means of wires from the different apartments, is quite a modern invention; for it was not known in England in the reign of Queen Anne. Now the use of room-bells is universal. Lately, there has been a great improvement in domestic bell-hanging. Instead of traversing the apartments, and turning and winding by means of cranks, the wires are carried directly upward in small tubes in the walls to the garret: thence from a row of cranks, they descend together to their respective bells, which are hung in one of the lower passages. In the larger hotels of the United States, wires from the several apartments operate on a single bell, at the same time developing a number on a board corresponding to the number of the room where attendance is required. This ingenious contrivance, which has been introduced into one of the large hotels in Paris, saves the perplexity which would ensue from some hundreds of bells.

BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE. The excommunication by B., B., and C. is a solemnity belonging to the Church of Rome. The officiating minister pronounces the formula of excommunication, consisting of maledictions on the head of the person anathematised, and closes the pronouncing of the sentence by shutting the book from which it is read, taking a lighted candle and casting it to the ground, and tolling the bell as for the dead. This mode of excommunication appears to have existed in the western churches as early as the 8th c. Its symbolism may be explained by quoting two or three sentences from the conclusion of the form of excommunication used in the Scottish Church before the Reformation: 'Cursed be they from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. Out be they taken of the book of life. And as this candle is cast from the sight of men, so be their souls cast from the sight of God into the deepest pit of hell. Amen.' The rubric adds: And then the candle being dashed on the ground and quenched, let the bell be rung.' So, also, the sentence of excommunication against the murderers of the Archbishop of Dublin in 1534: 'And to the terror and fear of the said damnable persons, in sign and figure that they be accursed of

BELL OF A CAPITAL-BELL, SIR C.

God, and their bodies committed into the hands of | published a tractate on education, recommending Satan, we have rung these bells, erected this cross the monitorial system, as it was now called, and with the figure of Christ; and as ye see this candle's light taken from the cross and the light quenched, so be the said cursed murderers excluded from the light of heaven, the fellowship of angels, and all Christian people, and sent to the low darkness of fiends and damned creatures, among whom everlasting pains do endure.'

BELL OF A CAPITAL is the capital of a pillar denuded of the foliage, in which case it resembles

the form of a bell reversed.

BELL ROCK, or

INCH CAPE, a reef of old red sandstone rocks in the German Ocean, 12 miles southeast of Arbroath, and nearly opposite the mouth of the Tay. The reef is 2,000 feet long; at spring-tides, part of it is uncovered to the height of four feet; and for 100 yards around, the sea is only three fathoms deep. It was formerly a fruitful cause of shipwreck, and, according to tradition, the abbot of Aberbrothwick (Arbroath) placed a bell on it, 'fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea, giving notice to the saylers of the danger.' This tradition has been embodied by Southey in his well-known ballad of The Inchcape Rock. A light-house, on the plan of the Eddystone one, and a fine example of engineering skill, was completed on the reef in 1811, and a revolving light exhibited. The structure is 115 feet high, is 42 feet in diameter at base, and 23 at top, is solid for the first 30 feet upwards, 15 feet of which is under water at high tide, and cost upwards of £60,000.

Section of Bell Rock
Light House.

admitting B. to be the original inventor of it, an admission which he afterwards discreditably retracted. Lancasterian schools now began to spread over the country. The church grew alarmed at the successful results of the efforts made by dissenters to educate the poor, and resolved to be philanthropical ere it was too late. B. was put up against Lancaster. Money was collected, and an immense amount of emulation was excited in the bosoms of churchmen. Fortunately, however, this rivalry produced only beneficial effects, and the motives which induced it may therefore be forgotten. Later in life, B. was made a prebendary of Westminster, and Master of Sherborn Hospital, Durham. He was also a member of various learned societies. He died at Cheltenham, January 28, 1832. He left (besides a valuable estate) £120,000 of three per-cent. stocks for the purpose of founding various educational institutions in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leith, Aberdeen, Inverness, Cupar, and St. Andrews.

BELL, SIR CHARLES, an eminent surgeon, whose discoveries in the nervous system have given him a European fame, was born at Edinburgh in 1778, and while a mere youth, assisted his brother John (afterwards noticed) in his anatomical lectures and demonstrations. In 1797, he was admitted a member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, and soon after appointed one of the surgeons of the Royal Infirmary. In 1806, he proceeded to London, and for some years lectured with great success on anatomy and surgery at the academy in Great Windmill Street. Admitted in 1812, a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London, he was elected one of the surgeons of the Middlesex Hospital, in which institution 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; the other, after the battle of Waterloo, when he repaired to Brussels, and was put in charge of a hospital with 300 men. 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, B. was placed at the head of their new medical school. He delivered the general opening lecture 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 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. Author of various works on surgery and the nervous system, and editor, jointly with Lord Brougham, of Paley's Evidences of Natural Religion, B. 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, He died suddenly,

[graphic]

BELL, ANDREW, D.D., author of the Madras System of Education,' was born at St. Andrews in 1753, and educated at the university of that place. Subsequently, he took orders in the Church of England; and after residing for some time in British America, was appointed one of the chaplains at Fort St. George, Madras. While here, he was intrusted by the directors of the East India Company with the management of an institution for the education of the orphan children of the European military. The arduous character of his new duties compelled him to reflect seriously on the best means of fulfilling them. As he found it impossible to obtain the services of properly qualified ushers, he at length resorted to the expedient of conducting the school by the aid of the scholars themselves. Hence originated the far-famed system of 'Mutual Instruction' (q. v.). After superintending the institution for seven years, the state of his health forced him to return to Europe. On his departure, he received a most flattering testimonial from the directors of the school. In 1797, after his arrival in England, B. published a pamphlet entitled An Experiment in Education, made at the Male Asylum of Madras; suggesting a System by which a School or Family may teach itself under the Superintend- as evincing Design (1834). ence of the Master or Parent. This pamphlet April 30, 1842. Among his principal works are: attracted little attention, until Joseph Lancaster, The Anatomy of the Brain Explained, in a Series a dissenter, commenced to work upon the system, of Engravings, 12 plates (Lond. 1802, 4to); A and succeeded in obtaining for it a large measure Series of Engravings, explaining the Course of the of public recognition. In 1803, Lancaster also Nerves (Lond. 1804, 4to); Essays on the Anatomy

BELL.

of Expression in Painting, plates (Lond. 1806, 4to); posthumous edition, much enlarged, entitled The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as connected with the Fine Arts (Lond. 1844, 8vo); A System of Operative Surgery, 2 vols. (Lond. 1807 -1809; 2d ed. 1814); Dissertation on Gunshot Wounds (Lond. 1814, 2 vols. 8vo); Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body, 3 vols. (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 (Edin. 2 vols. 1838, 12mo); Animal Mechanics, contributed to the Library for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1828); Nervous System of the Human Body, 1830, 4to complete edition (Edin. 1836, 8vo).

BELL, JOHN, of Antermony, a celebrated Asiatic traveller, born in the west of Scotland in 1691, studied for the medical profession. In 1714, he went to St. Petersburg, and soon after was appointed physician to an embassy from Russia to Persia. In 1719, he was sent upon another to China, through Siberia. In 1737, he was sent on an embassy to Constantinople, and afterwards settled for some years in the Turkish capital as a merchant. 1747, he returned to Scotland, and died at Antermony, July 1, 1780. His Travels from St. Petersburg to various Parts in Asia, in 2 vols. 4to, were published by subscription at Glasgow in 1763. From its simplicity of style, the work has been described as the best model, perhaps, for travel-writing in the English language.'

In

BELL, JOHN, an eminent surgeon, second son of BELL, GEORGE JOSEPH, an eminent lawyer, the Rev. William Bell, an Episcopal minister in brother to the above, was born at Edinburgh 26th Edinburgh, was born in that city, May 12, 1763. March 1770, and passed advocate in 1791. Acknow- He studied under the celebrated Black, Cullen, and ledged one of the greatest masters of commercial Monro secundus; and while attending the anatomy jurisprudence of his time, and in particular of that classes of Dr. Monro, first conceived the idea of department of it which relates to the laws of bank-teaching the application of the science of anatomy to ruptcy, he was, in 1822, appointed Professor of Scots practical surgery. He commenced, in 1786, lecturLaw in Edinburgh University; and in 1823, a mem-ing at Edinburgh on surgery and anatomy, and in ber of the commission for inquiring into Scottish judicial proceedings. Subsequently, he was member of a commission to examine into and simplify the mode of procedure in the Court of Session. On the report, drawn up by B., 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; the jury court being abolished as a separate judicature, and conjoined with the Court of Session. 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 works are-Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland, and on the Principles of Mercantile Jurisprudence (Edin. 1810, 4to; 5th ed. 1826, 2 vols. 4to); Principles of the Law of Scotland (Edin. 1829, 8vo; 4th ed. 1839, 8vo); and Commentaries on the Recent Statutes Relative to Diligence or Execution against the movable Estate, Imprisonment, Cessio Bonorum, and Sequestration in Mercantile Bankruptcy (Edin. 1840, 4to). | Died 23d September 1843.

A

1793 published the first volume of his Anatomy of the Human Body; in 1797, appeared the second volume; and in 1802, the third. A volume of anatomical drawings by himself, illustrative of the structure of the bones, muscles, and joints, was published in 1794; and another volume, illustrative of the arteries, with drawings by his brother, afterwards Sir Charles Bell, appeared in 1801. In 1798, B. passed some weeks at Yarmouth among the seamen of Lord Duncan's fleet wounded at Camperdown; and in 1800 he published a Memorial concerning the Present State of Military Surgery. His System of the Anatomy of the Human Body, and his Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds (Edin. 1793-1795), were translated into German. A good classical scholar, he was distinguished alike for his great conversational powers and general information. Early in 1816, he was thrown from his horse, and, his health declining, he went to Paris, and thence proceeded to Italy. He died at Rome, Besides the works of dropsy, April 15, 1820. mentioned, he was the author of The Principles of Surgery, 3 vols. 4to, 1801-1807; new edition, edited by his brother, Sir Charles Bell, 1826. posthumous work entitled Observations on Italy, `BELL, HENRY, the successful introducer of steam-edited by Bishop Sandford of Edinburgh, was navigation into Europe, fifth son of Patrick Bell, a mechanic, was born at Torphichen, Linlithgowshire, Scotland, April 7, 1767. After working three years as a stone-mason, he was, in 1783, apprenticed to his uncle, a mill-wright. He was instructed in shipmodelling at Borrowstounness, and completed his knowledge of mechanics with an engineer at Bell's Hill. Repairing to London, he was employed by the celebrated Mr. 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. How far B. was anticipated by Fulton and others, in his application of steam to navigation, will be considered under the head of STEAM NAVIGATION. In January 1812, a small vessel, 40 feet in length, called the Comet, built under his directions, and with an engine constructed by himself, was launched on the Clyde with success-the first on European waters. Five BELL, ROBERT, an industrious and versatile years previously, on October 3, 1807, Mr. Fulton, literary writer, the son of a magistrate, was born at an American inventor and engineer, had placed the Cork, 10th January 1800, and when very young, first steam-boat on the Hudson. B. died at Helens- obtained an appointment in a government departburgh, November 14, 1830. A monument was ment in Dublin. He was for a time editor of erected to his memory at Dunglass Point on the the government journal, The Patriot. In 1828, Clyde. he removed to London, and was appointed editor

published by his widow.

BELL, JOHN, an eminent sculptor, remarkable for rejecting the classical antique model, and following nature only in his works, born in Norfolk in 1812, first exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1832, a religious group. His works are numerous and of high and original merit. B.'s statues of Lord Falkland, exhibited in model at Westminster Hall, 1847, and Sir Robert Walpole, 1854, were commissioned for the new Houses of Parliament. One of his latest designs is a monument to the Guards who fell in the Crimea, executed in 1858. In decorative art, he has also distinguished himself, having modelled many objects for the drawingroom table, combining the practical with the ornamental. B. is the author of a Free Hand Drawingbook, for the Use of Artisans.

« PrécédentContinuer »