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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
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Asset Name:
E003844 - Blair-Bell, William (1871 - 1936)
Title:
Blair-Bell, William (1871 - 1936)
Author:
Royal College of Surgeons of England
Identifier:
RCS: E003844
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2013-04-10
Description:
Obituary for Blair-Bell, William (1871 - 1936), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Blair-Bell, William
Date of Birth:
28 September 1871
Place of Birth:
New Brighton, Cheshire
Date of Death:
25 January 1936
Titles/Qualifications:
MRCS 14 May 1896

FRCS by election 11 April 1929

LRCP 1896

MB London 1896

MD 1902

BS 1904

Hon FACS 1925

FRCOG 1929

Hon LLD Glasgow

Hon LLD Liverpool
Details:
Born at Rutland House, New Brighton, Cheshire on 28 September 1871. He was the second son of the nine children of William Bell, JP, MRCS, LSA and Helen, his wife, daughter of General Butcher. An elder brother, John Herbert Bell, solicitor, was adjutant of the prisoners-of-war camp at Donington Hall during the war of 1914-18, and another brother was a cotton broker in St Louis, USA. William entered Rossall School during the third term of 1885 and left at midsummer 1890, having been for two years in the school cricket eleven. He entered King's College, London, winning a Warneford scholarship in 1900, was Tanner prizeman in 1895, and became a Fellow of the College in 1928. The Tanner prize was awarded for proficiency in diseases of women and children, and in 1895 Gilbert H Lansdown and William B Bell were bracketed equal. He graduated MB at London University in 1896, but neither at college nor at the university did he show any marked intellectual superiority. He was a member of the King's College Hospital association football team, was captain of the hospital's cricket eleven, and was a good hurdler. He went into general practice at Birkenhead as soon as he was qualified but, deciding to specialize in obstetrics and gynaecology, made time to pass the London University higher examinations in medicine and surgery, graduating MD in 1902 and BS in 1904. In 1905 he was appointed gynaecological surgeon in charge of out-patients at the Royal Infirmary, Liverpool, and gynaecologist to the Wallasey Cottage Hospital, in 1913 he was senior gynaecological surgeon to the Royal Infirmary, and in 1935 he was appointed president of the charity. In the University of Liverpool he succeeded Henry Briggs as professor of obstetrics and gynaecology in 1921 and resigned in 1931, when he was followed by Prof Leith Murray and was complimented with the title of emeritus professor. At the Royal College of Surgeons of England he was awarded the Hunterian bronze medal and the triennial prize of £50 for the years 1910-12 for his stimulating essay on "The anatomy and physiology of the pituitary body and the relationship with disease of its abnormal and morbid conditions". He delivered the Arris and Gale lectures in 1913 on "The genital functions of the ductless glands", a subject which gained him the Astley Cooper prize at Guy's Hospital. In 1916, as a Hunterian professor of surgery and pathology, he lectured on "Experimental operations on the pituitary body", and advanced the theory that the reproductive functions are directed and controlled by all the organs of internal secretion acting in conjunction, rather than by the gonads alone. It was not until 1929 that he was elected a Fellow of the College as a Member of 20 years' standing. In 1911 Blair-Bell founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society of Great Britain. The number of members was at first limited to twenty with a retiring age from the active list at fifty-five. Two meetings were held each year, one of which was usually at a continental centre. From this society came the British (now Royal) College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which was incorporated in 1929. The suggestion to form such a college came from Dr William Fletcher Shaw, professor of clinical obstetrics and gynaecology in the University of Manchester. It was carried into effect by Blair-Bell, who was elected the first president, and to him was owing its prestige and ultimate success, for the project at first met with very considerable opposition. From an early period in his career Blair-Bell became interested in the subject of the causation of cancer and its cure. His first investigations were made in 1909 on the hypothesis that the chorionic epithelium was normally a malignant tissue and his experiments were made with placental and embryonic extracts. When these failed he tried the effect of lead, assuming that as lead could be used as an abortifacient it might possibly restrain the growth of tumour cells. From 1920 he treated cases of inoperable carcinoma of the breast by the injection of a colloid lead iodide (address to Toronto Academy of Medicine 1925). A few of his cases appeared to derive much benefit, but when it was tried on a larger scale it failed to justify itself, proving to be both painful and dangerous. In 1931 he delivered the Ingleby lecture at the University of Birmingham, and in 1932 he gave the Lloyd Roberts lecture at Manchester on "The present and future of the science and art of obstetrics" (*Brit Med J*. 1932, 1, 45). He married his niece, Florence Bell, on 7 June 1898. She was the daughter of his eldest brother, John Bell, solicitor, living at Surbiton, Surrey. She died in 1929 without issue. Blair-Bell died suddenly in the train on a night journey between London and Shrewsbury on 25 January 1936. As a university lecturer Blair-Bell was lucid and interesting; as a clinical teacher he was less effective. Towards the solution of any problem he brought immense industry, a minute attention to detail, a complete knowledge of the literature and a highly trained mind. He was one of the great driving forces in the world of British gynaecology during the first quarter of the twentieth century. He was an egotist and it was well said (of him that he was "the restless, lovable torch-bearer who never forgot nor allowed anyone else to forget that he was bearing a torch". He was a good hater as well as a good friend; he was largely devoid of tact and he was therefore often unable to carry his schemes into full effect. He combined in a curious manner idealism with a practical outlook. A portrait-drawing by Sir William Rothenstein is in the possession of the Liverpool Medical Institution. Publications:- *The sex complex*. London, 1916; 2nd ed 1919. *Principles of gynaecology*. London, 1910; 2nd ed 1917; 3rd ed 1919; 4th ed 1934. *The pituitary*. London, 1919. *Some aspects of the cancer problem* (editor). London, 1930. For complete bibliography see Sir Stanford Cade's Blair-Bell memorial lecture of 1950, published at Liverpool, 1952.
Sources:
*The Times*, 27 January 1936, p 17c

*Lancet*, 1936, 1, 285, with portrait

*Brit med J*. 1936, 1, 287, with portrait and p 343

*Med Pr and Circ*. 1936, 192, 129, with copy of Rothenstein's portrait, a good likeness

*J Obstet Gynaec*. 1936, 43, 293, with portrait

*Trans Amer Gynec Soc*. 1936, 61, 369, with portrait

Information given by his nephew, A C H Bell, FRCS, who presented his uncle's Hunterian medal to the Royal College of Surgeons
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E003000-E003999/E003800-E003899
Media Type:
Unknown