Joseph Bell

Joseph Bell FRCSE (2 December 1837 – 4 October 1911) was a Scottish surgeon and lecturer at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in the 19th century. He is best known as an inspiration for the literary character Sherlock Holmes.

Early life

Bell was born in Edinburgh to Cecilia Barbara Craigie (1813–1882) and Benjamin Bell (1810–1883), the heir to a family tradition of medical distinction. He was a great-grandson of Benjamin Bell, considered to be the first Scottish scientific surgeon, and his father, grandfather, and great-uncle were all eminent doctors. Bell attended Edinburgh Academy, going on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1853, aged only 16. In 1859, he received a PhD with the thesis "Epithelial cancer: its pathology and treatment". In 1863, he was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Career

In his instruction, Bell emphasised the importance of close observation in making a diagnosis. A successful diagnosis, Bell taught students, needed a doctor to "observe carefully, deduce shrewdly, and confirm with evidence" – a technique which he termed "The Method". He demonstrated the process by bringing his out-patients – who he did not know – into lectures, where he then deduced their occupation, health, and recent activities from observation alone. In one instance, Bell accurately deduced that a woman had been to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from traces of red clay on her shoes, that she had left a child with a relative from the size of a coat she carried, and that she worked in a linoleum factory in Burntisland from dermatitis on her right hand. In another demonstration, Bell inferred that an elderly woman regularly smoked a short-stemmed pipe by noticing a small ulcer on her lower lip, and a glossy scar on her cheek. These skills led to him being considered a pioneer in forensic science (forensic pathology in particular), at a time when science was not yet widely used in criminal investigation.