Abstract
TO few men does English biological science owe more than to the veteran zoologist whose death we briefly recorded in NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 473. Born at Poole, in Dorsetshire, on October n, 1792, Thomas Bell was edu cated as a surgeon-dentist, and on his establishment in practice in London he soon gained a high professional reputation. From an early period of life he devoted his leisure hours to zoological studies, and the fruits of his careful and conscientious labours are preserved in his numerous contributions to the Transactions and Proceedings of the Linnean, Geological, and Zoological Societies, and in his well-known manuals on “British Quadrupeds,” “Reptiles,” and “Stalk-eyed Crustacea.” These latter formed part of the series of works published by Mr. Van Voorst, which have done so much to spread a knowledge of the natural history of our islands; and Mr. Bell was specially adapted to such a task, having a happy faculty of conveying scientific information in such a form as ta be attractive to the general reader. A still more important undertaking was his illustrated folio, “Monograph of the Testudinata,” begun in 1836, but unfortunately the publisher failed when only eight parts had appeared, the plates, along with some which had remained unpublished, were re-issued to the public in 1872 by Mr. Sothern, with letterpress by the late Dr. J. E. Gray.
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The Late Mr. Thomas Bell, F.R.S. . Nature 21, 499–500 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021499b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021499b0