06 - Eminent Doctors- Their Lives and Their Work; Vol. 1 by George Thomas Bettany

Dive into the lives and achievements of doctors who made history in their field. Journey from the inception of the prestigious Edinburgh School of Medicine, through William Harveys revolutionary work on blood circulation, to the advancements in surgery and Edward Jenners pivotal role in creating vaccines. This is Volume 1 of a two-part series.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section five of Eminent Doctors Their Lives and their Work,
Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
please visit LibriVox dot org. Eminent Doctors Their Lives and

(00:20):
their Work, Volume one by George Thomas Bettney, The Monroes, Cullen,
the Gregory's John Bell and the Foundation of the Edinburgh
School of bettersone, Part two. As a sign of the
general mental attitude of doctor Cullen, the following extract from
a letter to his son James, on setting out for

(00:44):
foreign voyage, is of interest. Study your trade, eagerly, decline
the labor, Recommend yourself by briskness and diligence, bear hardships
with patience and resolution, be obliging to everybody, whether above
or below you, and hold up your head, both in

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a literal and figurative sense. While he aided his juniors
in the best sense to acquire independence of character. He
admitted them freely to his house, conversed with them on
the most familiar terms, solved their doubts and difficulties, gave
them the use of his library, and in every respect

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treated them with the affection of a friend and the
regard of a parent. It is impossible for those who
personally knew him in this relation, says doctor Aken, ever,
to forget the ardor of attachment which he inspired. Another
and not less pleasing view of Culin is shown in
his recommendation of Don Quixote to do guard Stuart when

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a boy suffering from some indisposition, and the interest he
manifested in his patient's progress. In that delight he used
to talk over with the lad every successive incident, scene
and character, manifesting the minutest accuracy of recollection of the masterpiece.
We shall not follow the discussions which arose at Edinburgh

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about the succession to doctor Ruthervedt's chair of the Practice
of Physic, nor the circumstances which led to doctor John
Gregory's appointment. Suffice it to say that on the death
of doctor Witt Cullen consented to accept the chair of
the Theory of Physic in seventeen sixty six, and that

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subsequently an arrangement was made by which the two professors
lectured alternately on the theory in practice of physic, to
the still greater advantage of the now celebrated school. This
appointment was strongly promoted by both the Munrose and by
an address signed by one hundred sixty medical students. The

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arrangement now made lasted till doctor Gregory's death in seventeen
seventy three, when Cullen became sole professor of the Practice
of physic Black was brought to Edinburgh to succeed Cullen
in the chair of chemistry. Cullen's principal works are The Nsology,
A Synopsis and Classification of Diseases with Definitions, which obtained

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wide popularity, although only an approximation to a sound system,
and his first Lines of the Practice of physic four
volumes seventeen seventy eight to eighty five, which went through
numerous editions. One of its especial merits was that appointed
out more clearly than preceding works, the extensive and powerful

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influence of a nervous system on disease. It is now
held as the defect of his system that it was
too theoretical and that its views were not adequately supported
by facts. It cannot be denied that Cullen had but
modern anatomical and physiological knowledge, and this has prevented him

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from leaving works capable of being read with much profit
by the practitioners of the present day. It is, after all,
on William Cullen's personal influence on the school of medicine,
which he did so much to maintain, that his fame
will chiefly rest. The character of this influence is honorable

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and stainless. Doctor James Anderson has left in unequivocal language
a record of his bearing in his conspicuous position, which
does equal honor to his intellectual energy and to his
qualities of art. Doctor Culin, he says, was employed five
or six hours a day in visiting patients and prescribing

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by letter, lecturing never less than two hours a day,
sometimes four. Yet when encountered he never seemed in a
hurry or discomposed, always easy, cheerful, and sociably inclined. He
would play at whist before supper with a keen interest,
as if a thousand pounds depended on it. Culin did

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not leave his acquaintance with his students to originate by chance,
but invited them early in their attendance, by twos, threes
and fours to supper, and gaining their confidence about their studies,
amusements difficulties, hopes and prospects. Thus he got to know
all his class, and paid a special attention to those

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who were most assiduous, best disposed, or most friendless. He
made a point of finding out who among them were
most hampered by poverty, and often found some polite excuse
for refusing to take a fee, even for their first course,
and in many cases for their second course. One method
he adopted was to express his wish to have their

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opinion on a particular part of his course, which had
been omitted for want of time the previous session, and
he went thereupon present them with the ticket for the
second course. After two courses, he did not require any
fee for further attendance. He is credited to with having
introduced into Edinburgh the practice of not taking fees for

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medical attendance on students of the university. This ease and
generosity about money matters was the cause of his eventually
dying without any fortune. It is said that he used
to put sums of money into an open drawer to
which he and his wife went when they wanted any
We shall not enter here into the controversy between doctor

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John Brown, founder of the Rounonian theory, of medicine and
his disciples, and Doctor Cullen, to whom Brown had owed
everything in his youth. Brown's system proved to be no
more stable than his personal character, although its noisy advocacy
and the abuse heaped upon him personally caused doctor Cullen

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much more pain. Cullen continued to deliver his lectures until
seventeen eighty nine, having resigned his professorship on the thirtieth December,
and he died on the fifth February seventeen ninety, almost
eighty years of age. He was buried at Kirknewton, in
which parish was situated his estate at Ormiston Hill, This latter,

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which he had beautified with very great care, had to
be sold after his death for the benefit of his family.
Doctor Anderson describes doctor Cullen as having a striking and
not unpleasing aspect, although by no means elegant. His eye
was remarkably vivacious and expressive in person. He was tall

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and thin, stooping very much in later life and walking.
He had a contemplative look, scarcely regarding the objects around him.
When in Edinburgh, he rose before seventh and would often
dictate to an Menuensis till nine. At ten he commenced
his visits to patients, proceeding in Acidiangaia through the narrow

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closes and winds. He always lived while in Edinburgh, in
a comparatively small office in the Mint, not far from
the seat of his academical duties. For them he may
be said to have lived and died. The family of
the Gregorys has been perhaps equally celebrated with Monrose in

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connection with university life in Scotland, and has certainly furnished
it with a large number of eminent professors. James Gregory,
the celebrated inventor of the reflecting telescope, was the first
great man of the family, and his publication of a
work on optics at sixteen sixty three marked an error

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in that science. His early death in sixteen seventy five,
at the age of thirty seven, deprived science of many
brilliant discoveries. In prospect. His only son, James, became professor
of medicine in King's College, Aberdeen, and died in seventeen
thirty one. His younger son, John Gregory, the first of

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the medical Gregory's, who became associated with the fame of
Edinburgh was only seven years old when his father died
in seventeen thirty one. After being educated at Aberdeen under
the care of his elder brother, who had succeeded his father,
and also under the influence of his cousin Thomas Reid,

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the well known metaphysician, young Gregory entered at Edinburgh in
seventeen forty one and studied unto the elder Monroe Sinclair
and brother of it and at the Medical Society. Commenced
a warm friendship with bark Alkenside, author of The Pleasures
of Imagination. In seventeen forty five to six he studied

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at Leyden under Albiness, and having received MD degree from
Aberdeen during his absence, he was elected to the chair
of Philosophy there on his return, and lectured there for
three years on mathematics and moral and natural philosophy. In
seventeen forty nine he resigned this chair in order to

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devote himself to medicine, and in seventeen fifty two he
married Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Forbes, who had beauty, intellect
and wit, and brought him a fortune. Finding that Aberdeen
afforded him no sufficient field for practice in competition with
his elder brother, Gregory, went in seventeen fifty four to London,

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where he had already friends such as Wilkes and Charles Townsend,
whom he had met at Leyden, and where he speedily
made other friends, of whom may be mentioned George Lord
Lyttleton Edward and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. He was at
once elected into the Royal Society and would no doubt

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have gained fashionable support, but his elder brother dying in
seventeen fifty five, he was recalled to Aberdeen to fill
the professorship of Medicine. Here he continued to practice until
lecture till seventeen sixty four, publishing in the latter year
a comparative view of the state and faculties of Man

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with those of the animal world. He then removed to
Edinburgh with a view to securing a professorship there. This
fell to his lot in seventeen sixty six on the
death of Rutherford. In the same year he succeeded doctor
Andrew Witt as Physician to the King in Scotland. He
had first lectured on the practice of physics solely, but

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in seventeen seventy he agreed with Cullen that they should
lecture in alternate years on the theory and the practice,
and this arrangement was continued permanently. As a lecturer, he
was very successful, simple and not in any way oratorical
in style. He was especially noted for some lectures on

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the Duties and Qualifications of a Physician, which were afterwards
published and went through several editions. He gave the prophets
to a poor and Deserving student. In seventeen seventy two
he published Elements of the Practice of Physic, a kind
of syllabus of lectures, and this completes the list of

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his medical works. His name was more known after his
death as the author of A Little Book of Advice
to Young Girls, a father's legacy to his daughters, which
has gone through very many editions. His tone may be
judged from the following extract, Do not marry a fool.
He is the most untractable of all animals. He is

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led by his passions in cuprisus, and is incapable of
hearing the voice of reason. But the worst circumstance that
attends a full is his constant jealousy of his wife
being thought to govern him. This renders it impossible to
lead him, and he is continually doing absurd and disagreeable

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things for no other reason but to show he dares
do them. A rake is always a suspicious husband, because
he is known only the most worthless of your sex.
He likewise entails the worst diseases on his wife and children,
if he has the misfortune to have any. Gregory's predominant
qualities were good sense and benevolence in conversation. He had

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a warmth of tone and of gesture that were very pleasing,
united to gentleness and simplicity of manner. To his pupils,
he was a friend as easy of access and ready
to assist them to the utmost. His Edinburgh life was
spent in intimate association with David Hume, Lord Monbodo, Lord Keynes,

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Doctor Blair, and the elder tyler. James Batty loved him
with enthusiastic affection, as the closing stances of the minstrel testify.
Gregory died suddenly on the ninth February seventeen seventy three,
from count from which he had frequently suffered. He had
thus scarcely attained the age of fifty. James Gregory, who

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succeeded his father in the professorship. Was born in Aberdeen
in seventeen fifty three. He was educated in Edinburgh and
also studied for a short time at Christ Church, Oxford,
where his relation, doctor David Gregory, had been dean. He
acquired a strong taste for classics and no little classical erudition,

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so that he was throughout life fond of making apposite
Latin quotations, and wrote that language easily and accurately. He
was still a student of medicine at Edinburgh when his
father's sudden death took place in seventeen seventy three. The son,
by a great effort, completed his father's course of lectures,

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and showed so much ability that the professorship was practically
kept open for him. In seventeen seventy four he took
the m d Degree and spent the next two years
in studying medicine on the continent. In seventeen seventy six,
being then only twenty three, he was appointed professor of
the Institutes of Medicine, and in the following year also

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commenced to give clinical lectures at the infirmary, which method
of instruction he continued for more than twenty years. His
practice at first was not extensive until his pupils had
themselves become practitioners and called him in as a consultant
in his later years. After Culin's death, his practice increased largely,

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and in the ten years preceding his death he had
the leading consulting practice in Scotland. In seventeen eighty to two,
Gregory published his Conspectus Medicine The Eretice. Written in excellent Latin,
it speedily became widely known and was extensively read, not

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only in Britain but also on the continent. It has
gone through numerous editions. Its more important and valuable portions
were those dealing with therapeutics. In seventeen ninety he was
appointed culents successor in the chair of the Practice of Medicine,
and from that time continued to lecture to large classes

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down to his death in eighteen twenty one April second.
Thus he held an almost autocratic position for the long
period of over thirty years, and as much to be
regretted that his great talents and repartee quick memory for
telling quotations and fondness for a joke led him to
take an active part in the medical controversies which have

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embedded so many careers in Edinburgh. The long list of
controversial books and pamphlets by doctor Gregory given by mister
John Bell in his Letters on Professional Controversy in Manners
eighteen ten, could be considerably extended, and it affords a
melancholy picture of misplaced energy. One of these extended to

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seven hundred pages quarto, and its tone may be judged
on the following extracts from the Memorial to the Managers
of the Royal Infirmary. Let us suppose that, in consequence
of this memorial every individual member of the College of
Surgeon shall, to his own share, make forty times more

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noise than Orlando for Rioso did a full moon when
he was maddest, and shall continue in that unparalleled state
of uproar but twenty years without ceasing. I could see
no great harm in all that noise, and no harm
at all to any of those who make it. Ninety
nine parts in a hundred of all that noise would

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of course be bestowed on me, whom it would not
deprive of one hour of my natural sleep, and to
whom it would afford infinite amusement and gratification. While I
am awake. We are certainly a most amiable brotherhood, as
every person must acknowledge who has had the good luck
to see what a dozen and a half or two

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dozen of us together, especially if he saw us at dinner. Yet,
whatever the majority of us may be, I am afraid
we are not all perfect angels. Some of us at
least appear to be made of the same flesh and blood,
and to be subject to the same frailties and passions
and vices as other men. The consequence is that when

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two or three of us are set down together in
a little town, or fifty or a hundred of us
in a great town, and obliged to scramp of for
fame and fortune and daily bread, we are apt to
get into rivalships, and disputes and altercations, which sometimes and
in open quarrels and implacable animosities, to the very great

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annoyance of those who are and the no less entertainment
of those who are not are patients. A consultation among
any number of such angry physicians or surgeons, in all
probability will conduce as little to the benefit of their
patient as a congress of an equal number of game
clocks turned loose in a clock pit, for probably the

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good of the patient will be the last and least
object of their thoughts. Inasmuch as he takes occasion to
say of John Bell, any man, if himself or his
family were sick, should as soon think of calling in
a mad dog as mister John Bell. We can judge
of the position in which anyone found himself or had

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the misfortune to displease doctor Gregory. We must believe, however,
on the testimony of many who knew him, that he
must have possessed many rooms remarkable and excellent qualities to
have one so large a share of their attachment and
esteem as he undoubtedly did. Doctor Allison says of him

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Encyclopedia Britannica, eighth Edition, that the boldness, originality, and strength
of his intellect, and the energy and decision of his
character were strongly marked in his conversation, and that he
showed both warm attachment to his friends and a generosity
almost bordering on profusion. He disdained to conciliate public favor,

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and often gave unrestrained vent to a strongly irascible temper.
He would not give up his point in argument, and
would overwhelm his opponents with quotations, jests, and satire. As
a teacher, Gregory was conspicuous for a sound practicality. He
highly approved of a maxim which he often brought forward,

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the best physician is he who can distinguish what he
can do from what he cannot do. Pathology in his
days was a very rudimentary science, and hence he distrusted
all theories in regard to the essential nature of disease
as premature in visionary. He was at home in the

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study of diagnostic and prognostic symptoms, and paid considerable attention
to the action of remedies. He had no tendency to
meddle some medicine, restraining and discountenancing treatment when there was
no hope or prospect of success. He believed strongly in
the anti philogistic or lowering treatment of inflammatory diseases, and

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in the use of preventive measures and warding off the
attacks of chronic diseases. Thus he presented the spectacle of
an advocate of temperance, a bodily exertion without fatigue, and
of mental occupation without anxiety, who by no means followed
his own prescriptions. As a lecturer. He played a most

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ready command of language and an excellent memory, especially for
cases he had seen, the details of which he could
accurately remember from the name alone of the patient. He
gained great influence over the minds of his pupils, not
merely by the humor and the abundance of his illustrations,
but also by the outspoken exposition of his views and

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his commanding energy. His frankness showed itself too in the
candor with which he communicated his opinions to the relatives
or friends of his patients. He took a genuine interest
in his patience and convinced them of his sincerity. Notwithstanding
a certain roughness of manner, where he felt no personal antagonism.

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He was on very cordial terms with his professional friends,
and succeeded in gaining their esteem and regard by his
manner towards them in consultation. He was, as we have
said before, the admitted autocrat of the profession in Edinburgh.
In his later years, and as much to be regretted

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that his contributions to the science of medicine are so few.
Gregory used to say that while physic had been the business,
metaphysics had been the amusement of his life. Read dedicated
jointly to him and to Dugald's Stuart his essays on
the Intellectual Powers, and he was an attached friend of

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Thomas Brown, and interested himself greatly in securing his succession
to Dugald's Stuart in the chair of Moral Philosophy. He
went so far in philology as to publish a Theory
of the Moods of Verbs and the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions
with seventeen eighty seven. His literary and philosophical essays in

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two volumes seventeen ninety two dealt mainly with the old
controversy as to liberty and necessity. However, since he had
a strong opinion that metaphicia admits of no discoveries, it
is not surprising that his contribution to the science failed
to secure a permanent place. His fourth son, William Gregory,

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became a distinguished chemist, the friend of liberg and translator
of the familiar letters on chemistry, and professor of Chemistry
in the University of Edinburgh. John Bell, who comes last
to be mentioned in the Leicester Great Edinburgh Men of
the eighteenth century, is linked with the nineteenth in part

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by his surgical career and posthumous observations on Italy, and
still more by his relationship to his great brother, Sir
Charles Bell. Everyone who reads the scattered memorials of John
Bell will be filled with regret that his career should
have been plighted by controversy and what appears even malignant

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opposition led by doctor James Gregory. His artistics, tastes and acquirements,
combined with his original views on anatomy and surgery, made
him a specimen of a new genus in Edinburgh, and
it is certain that Edinburgh did not adequately appreciate him.
John Bell, the second son of the Reverend William Bell,

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a clergyman of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, was
educated for the medical profession by his father's choice in
gratitude for the relief aid received by means of a
difficult surgical operation about a month before his son's birth
in seventeen sixty three. He was apprenticed to Alexander Wood,

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a well known surgeon, in seventeen seventy nine. For five
years he attended the lectures of Black Cullen and the
second Monroe, and became a fellow of the Edinburgh College
of Surgeons in seventeen eighty six. Monroe not being an
operating surgeon, John Bell saw many defects in his teaching
as to the applications of anatomy to surgery. In fact,

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surgical anatomy was never adequately taught in Edinburgh till he
himself commenced to teach an actual dissection was little thought of,
he says, in doctor Monro's class, unless they be a
fortunate succession of bloody murders. Not three subjects are dissected
in the year. On the remains of a subject fished

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up from the bottom of a dub of spirits are
demonstrated those delicate nerves which are to be avoided or
divided in our operations. And these are demonstrated once at
the distance of one hundred feet, nerves and arteries which
a surgeon has to dissect at the peril of his
patient's life. Immediately after qualifying. Therefore, John Bell commenced lecturing

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on anatomy and surgery on his own account, an audacious
proceeding which did not fail to draw down upon him
the antagonism of all those who stood but the old lines.
He was vigorous in his denunciation of the stereotype methods
and imperfections of the old school of Monroe and Benjamin Bell.

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He built a house for his courses and practical work
in Sergeant Square were carried on his work. After seventeen
ninety he soon came into popularity, and this increased as
his style became more polished and formed, being in fact
the most graphic which had appeared in the Edinburgh medical school.

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He was a masterly descriptive writer and used all the
charms of style to give interest to his subject. Consequently,
his opponents said that he romanced and exaggerated. He stuck
to his text that surgery must be based upon anatomy
and pathology, and unfortunately aroused the bitterest opposition of James Gregory,

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who first published an anonymous pamphlet entitled A Guide to
the Medical Students attending the use University of Edinburgh, warning
students against attending John Bell's lectures. The next attack was
a review of the writings of John Bell, Surgeon in Edinburgh.
But Jonathan Dauplucker this malignant attack says Bell was stuck

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up like a play bill in most conspicuous and unusual
manner on every corner of the city, on the door
of my lecture room, on the gates of the college,
where my pupils could not but pass, and on the
gates of the infirmary, where I went to perform my operations.
Bell replied by adopting the nickname used by his opponent,

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at the same time attacking his surgical ally in conventional methods,
Benjamin Bell, whose system of surgery in six volumes afforded
him excellent sport. Bell says, I neither mistook my bird
nor missed mashat, And on the day on which the
second number was published, the great search work of Benjamin

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fell down dead. At this time it was customary for
all the surgeons of Edinburgh who care to do so,
to operate in rotation at the infirmary, and Gregory put
forward a plan by which only a select and limited
number of surgeons were to be allowed this privilege. But
the scheme was especially aimed at securing the exclusion of

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John Bell, and this Gregory accomplished. In eighteen hundred. However,
Bell had gained notoriety and practice, though he had lost
the hospital appointment and apparently all chance of a university professorship.
He gave up teaching and devoted himself to practice. He
had been instrumental in raising the tone of university requirements

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and theories in his branch, and it could not again
sink to its former inferior condition. He became the leading
operator and consulting surgeon of his time. He was not
only a bulld and dexterous operator, says Professor Struthers, but
combined all the qualities natural and acquired of a great

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surgeon to an extraordinary degree. He was original and fearless,
and a thorough anatomist. He had intellect, nerve and also language,
was master alike of head, hand and tongue or pen.
And he was laborious as well as brilliant, generous himself,
and liberal to those who were necessitous. He knew how

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to reprove niggardliness in the wealthy. On one occasion of
rich Landmarkshield Laird gave him a check for fifty pounds
of services, which Bell considered to deserve much higher remuneration.
On reaching the outer door, he met with the butler
and said to him, you have had considerable trouble opening

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the door to me. There is a trifle for you,
and gave him his master's check. The astonished butler, of course,
consulted his master about this mark of doubtful favor, and
a laird, understanding the hint, sent after the skillful surgeon
a check for one hundred fifty pounds. John Bell has, however,

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other claims of remembrance than his teaching and his operative skill.
His anatomical and surgical writings are still worthy of consultation
and aided materially in the progress of the science. His
principal works of this class were The Anatomy of the
Human Body three volumes seventeen ninety three to eighteen o two,

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Engravings of the Bones, Muscles and Joints, illustrating Volume one
of the Anatomy seventeen ninety four, on the Nature and
Cure of Wounds seventeen ninety five, and Principles of Surgery
three volumes, eighteen o one to eight. Sir Charles Bell
speaks of the rapid improvement and the surgery of the

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arteries which followed the publication of this part of the Anatomy,
and further that it could not easily be surpassed for
correctness and minuteness of description. The third volume of the
Anatomy was by his brother Charles, under whose subsequent editorship
the book went through numerous editions and was translated into German.

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The Treatise on Wounds contained clear expositions of the novel
practice of aiming at the early union of wounds AFT operations,
and also emphasized the importance of the free anastomosis of
arteries in all cases where injuries were sustained by the
main arterial drunks. In his Principles of Surgery, he gave

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excellent historical views of his subject as well as the
latest and best practice founded on anatomy and physiology. Sir
Charles Bell makes the following point to contrast between his
brother and Sir Astley Cooper in regard to their methods.
He John Bell seems most happy when he can support

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his reasoning by the authority of those who have preceded him,
and feels that he has conferred a double benefit when
he can, at the same time illustrate the truth and
vindicate the character of some excellent old surgeon and teach
the youth of the present day to look back to
the history of the profession for their most useful lessons.

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So ask the Cooper. On the other hand, hates all
authority which interferes with his popularity, votes that volume to
be an old musty one which is dedicated to himself,
omits all mention of his respectable contemporaries, and only varies
his terms of praise and eulogy on the young man

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whom he flatters, journalists, and connections in business down to
the cutler who makes his instruments. In eighteen o five,
John Bell married Rosina Cockleton, daughter of a retired Edinburgh physician,
and in her found congeniality of tastes, an appreciation of

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the artistic, literary and musical sides of his nature, an
admirable assistance in his propensity. By exercising hospitality, his entertainments
and his own performances on the trombone became celebrated. His
taste for art was accompanied by remarkable skill in design

(34:24):
and execution, in which he was only excelled amon surgeons
by his own brother Charles. He never, however, felt quite
at ease after his exclusion from the infirmary. His rivals,
occupying their position of authority Doctor Gregory, in perpetual sway,
could not but impress him with a sense of undeserved failure.

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Early in eighteen sixteen, he was thrown from his horse
and did not recover rapidly from his injuries. In eighteen seventeen,
his health was so much impaired that he went on
a foreign tour with his and his last three years
were spent in Italy, where his artist's soul found great delight,
and where he also had much professional practice among English

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visitors to Italy. During his residence in Italy, he was
well aware of the dangerous condition of his health, but
his singular degree of spirit and ardor of character prevented
his ever betraying his consciousness of it. A few penciled
lines written by him before leaving Paris expressed well the

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inmost heart of the man whose career had presented such
outward turbulence. He says, I have seen much of the
disappointments of life. I shall not feel them. Long sickness
in an awful and sudden form, loss of blood in
which I lay sinking for many hours, with the feeling
of death long protracted, when I felt how painful it

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was not to come quite to life, yet not to die.
A clamorous dream tell that in no long time that
must happen, which was lately so near. He died of
dropsy at Rome on April fifteenth, eighteen twenty. In Florence
and Rome, he visited all the principal galleries and took

(36:15):
pencil notes of his observations, both from a scientific and
artistic point of view. These formed the main bulks of
his posthumous Observations in Italy, edited by his friend, Bishop
Sandford of Edinburgh, published in quarto form in eighteen twenty five,
subsequently in two volumes eight vo in eighteen thirty five,

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with additional chapters on Naples. On their publication, they at
once took cogbrank from their singular combination of artistic sympathies,
literary expression, and scientific criticism. The New Monthly Review, on
its first page described the language of these observations as figureous,
terse and pure. His lights and shadows are disposed with

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the masterly hand. His descriptions, both the landscapes and of
manners in Italy are referred to as the most fascinating
that had yet appeared, as a specimen of this vivid
and picturesque style, showing how much his art was aided
by that quickness to perceive characteristic expressions and traits which

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were so trained by his medical experience. We may quote
his account of a Lunton preacher whom he heard at Rome.
A sandal footed pierre, armed, unclothed looking monk, young, with
a pale visage and negligent aspect, stood leaning against a
pillar at the upper end of the middle knave. His gray,

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coarse habit, girded by various foes of thickly knotted cords,
seemed scarcely to cover his person, his almost naked arms
hanging down by his side, while his cowl, which had
fallen back, discovered a wild, pallid countenance and a long, lean,
bony throat. He stood silent and motionless, like an image

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of statue, as if lost in meditation or exhausted by
the vehemence of his own overwrought feelings poured out upon
his auditors. The orator had evidently reached to an elevated
strain before my entrance, leaving as he had suddenly paused
vivid traces of the force of his arguments on the

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countenances of those he addressed. Here. The spread hands, the
half opened mouth, the strained eye spoke in earnest yet
amazed attention, while perhaps near him stood with silvered hair
and meek aspect, the pale anchorite trembling while he listened,
lest perchance even he might not be secure against the

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punishments of the evil door, while beyond him might be
seen the dark, gloomy, steady gaze of the brooding fanatic.
He slashing eye seemed to kindle with the orator and
keep pace with his denunciations, perhaps contrasted by the quiet,
untinty air of contented stupidity, looking as if the sense

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of hearing alone were roused, or by the speaking eye
beaming with zealous fire, as if ready to challenge or
answer each new proposition. Some stood with downcast looks, serious
and reflecting. Others walked softly along now seen, now lost
among the pillars, or the larger portion who had been

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at it, were surprised by their emotion into a momentary testiturnity,
were hastily forming into groups and beginning and whispered accents
to converse with that eagerness and vivacity which so peculiarly
characterize their nation. But soon above those murmuring sounds, the full,

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deep toned voice of the preacher struck the ear when
suddenly all again was brushed to silence. Slow and so
Ptolemy opened his discourse, but as he proceeded his features
became gradually more animated, his dark, deep, eloquent eye kindling
as he spoke and throwing momentary radiance over his worn

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and haggard countenance, while the round, mellow tones of the
Italian language gave the finest energy to his expressions. With
frequent pauses, but with increasing power, he continued his discourse,
his voice now low and solemn, now grand and forcible,
but still with moderated and ever varied accents, which worked

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on the feelings, at one moment, producing the chill of
strong emotion, and then as he changed his tone, melting
the heart to tenderness. The object of his sermon and
self imposed mission was to gain votaries and win them
to a monastic life by portraying the dangers, the turbulence,

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and the sorrows of the worldly, contrasted with the peaceful,
sould vanity of the heaven devoted mind, occasionally as if
warmed by prophetic spirit, with air now imploring and plaintive,
now wild and triumphant, with animated gesture and tossing of
the arms alternately pointing to heaven and to the shades below.

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He seemed as if he would seduce, persuade, a tear
his victim from the world. The powers of his voice
and action gave an indescribable force to his language, carrying
away the minds of his auditors with a rapidity that
left no pause for reflection. The somber chastened light of day,
bringing forward some objects in strong relief and leaving others

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in shade. The peculiar aspect of the monk, The magic influence,
which seemed to hang on his words and lend force
to his eloquence, gave to the whole scene a character
when singular and striking. John Bell was below middle stature
of good figure, active with regular features, keen penetrating eyes,

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and highly intellectual expression. His widow says of him to
a classical taste and knowledge of drawing, many of his
professional designs being finely executed by his own hand. He
joined a mind strongly alive to the beauties of nature.
He would often, in his earlier years yield to the

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enjoyment they produced, and wandering among the wild and grand
scenery of his native land indulged his imagination in gazing
on the rapid stream, or watch the coming storm. Such
habits seemed to have tended in some measure to form
his character, training him especially to independence and judgment, and

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perseverance in investigation that led him to seek knowledge and
boldly publish his opinions. With warm affections and sanguine temper,
he looked forward with the hope that his labors in
reputation would one day assure worthily bring independence. And meanwhile,
listening only to the dictates of an enthusiastic nature, and

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yielding to the impulse of feeling, he would readily give
his last guinea, his time, and his care to any
who required them. Judging of others by himself, he was
too confiding in friendship and too careless in manners of business. Consequently,
from the one he was exposed to disappointment, and from

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the other involved in difficulties and embarrassments, which tinged the
color of his whole life and of Section five.