Dr. Benjamin Bell

Back of Bell's Wynd, Prot.W.F. 11 , 20/10/1762; Fairlie's Entry from Cowgate (q.v.); Murray's Close, Prot.W.F.3, 7/12/1749; Snawdoun's Close, Prot., W.F.10, 3/2/1761.The name was taken from the New Assembly Rooms, which occupied the great house there from 1766 to 1784, New Lights, 185. o.& n.e. i. 245, mentions the Assembly Room in Bell's Wynd, to which rank and fashion came in 1758.But Edgar 1742 and Maitland 1753 gives the New Assembly Close, showing that it already bore the name.The name does not occur in the protocols.From its position it was also called the Back of Bell's Wynd, Prot.W.F.11, 20/10/1762.
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Gordon shows no distinct close between Bell's Wynd and Stevenlaw's Close; Edgar and Ainslie two short blind closes, in one line, one on the south side of the High Street, the other on the north side of the Cowgate, giving the impression that formerly there had been some kind of thoroughfare, under one name, but that the middle part had been built up and the ends left.
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Charter for lands of Newington granted to Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, surgeon, m.t.c. 24/7/1805.Acquired from Alexr.Wood, surgeon, 2/6/1803.Lands of Newington,Prot.10/6/1713.

For markets see Edgar, Ainslie and Lothian map 1825, which last names the street "Road leading from Bell house at Castlehill to New Port", Prot.
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From the churchyard where were buried the grandparents of Benjamin Bell, surgeon, on whose property the street is built, B. Bell, 81.

Benjamin Bell (1749-1806), who was surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh for 29 years, made important contributions to the treatment of ulcers and white swellings of the joints."Important classification of ulcers."--See Garrison-Morton 5578, citing the Edinburgh, 1778 first edition."One of the classics of eighteenth-century physiology"--See Heirs of Hippocrates 1078, citing an Edinburgh, 1789 edition.

Benjamin Bell of Hunthill, surgeon Apr 1749 Dumfriesshire, SCT Grizel Hamilton 308

Dr Benjamin Bell was one of the first doctors to recognise the way cancer spread through the body and his great-grandson was famously one of the inspirations behind Sherlock Holmes.
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Now a "lost" portrait of Dr Bell by famous Edinburgh artist Sir Henry Raeburn has been put up for sale by descendants of the medical pioneer.
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Dr Bell belonged to a long line of eminent Edinburgh surgeons, including his great-grandson Joseph, who became Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mentor and one of the inspirations for Sherlock Holmes.
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At the age of 17, Dr Bell left his native Dumfriesshire and was sent to medical school in Edinburgh.

In 1772, he was appointed as a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, where he stayed for 29 years.

Chloroform

He became a very successful and highly business-like practitioner, and was one of the first surgeons to seek an effective way of alleviating pain during surgical operations.

He tried various chemical painkillers without great success.

However, these early experiments were described in his work A System of Surgery, and helped pave the way for the discovery of chloroform in the city more than half a century later.

Dr Bell was also one of the first physicians to promote the belief that cancer was a local condition which initially affected only one part of the body.

Remarkably for his time, he spread the idea that the quick removal of cancerous tumours was an essential part of their treatment.

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"It is a cut above the normal quality of Raeburn we would expect to sell and shows a very striking image of Dr Bell.
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It is understood that a tassie medallion of Dr Bell is already held in the NGS collection.

The Bell descendent who is selling the painting could not be contacted for a comment.

Another portrait of an Edinburgh-trained doctor is expected to fetch up to £12,000 at auction on Friday.