Benjamin Bell

Benjamin Bell of Hunthill FRSE FRCSEd (6 September 1749 – 5 April 1806)[1] is considered to be the first Scottish scientific surgeon.

[4][5][6] He published medical works of significance, notably his surgical textbook A System of Surgery which became a best seller throughout Europe and in America.

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.

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.

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.

This may have been because of his lifelong friendship with James Gregory, the Professor of Physic, and the most influential member of the Infirmary Board of Management.

At that time, now well established in practice, Bell was content to step down, but he wrote to the College setting out the case for 'permanent appointments' to the Infirmary rotation, a view which had been also promoted by Gregory.

This rest was to prove fortuitous, for it allowed him time to reflect and to write, and his relatively wealthy background enabled him to do this without financial concerns.

[11] He is buried with other family members, including his wife Grizzel Hamilton, in the south-east corner of Canongate Churchyard in Edinburgh.

Bell was an advocate of the routine use of opium to relieve post-operative pain, stating "to be able to alleviate the misery of those who are obliged to submit to dangerous operations must afford the biggest gratification to every practitioner."

Bell also credited his fellow Scot, James Moore, with developing a clamp to produce nerve compression in the arm or leg to provide analgesia for amputation.

His son, George Bell FRSE (1777–1832) commissioned architect James Gillespie Graham (1776–1855) to prepare plans for housing and the subdivision of the land into plots.

This inspired a young Edinburgh medical student Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) to base the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes on Joseph Bell.