The Brothers Bell: Emotion, War and Surgical Identity in Late Georgian Britain
This talk to the Georgian Group will explore the life and work of two of the most influential surgeons of early nineteenth-century Britain, the brothers John Bell (1763-1820) and Charles Bell (1774-1842) It will focus less upon their vitally important contributions to anatomy and physiology than upon the ways in which they defined what it meant to be a surgeon. In particular, we shall explore how they shaped personal and professional identities that emphasised emotional self-reflection and championed the values of compassion and sympathy for the patient. We shall also see how this emotional disposition was shaped by the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, events in which both played a role and which exercised a profound influence over their sense of self.
Image: Operation to Remove a Tumour, 1817 (Wellcome)
