Thomas Bell (zoologist)

Thomas Bell FRS (11 October 1792 – 13 March 1880) was an English zoologist, surgeon and writer, born in Poole, Dorset, England.

Thomas Bell
Born(1792-10-11)11 October 1792
Poole, England
Died13 March 1880(1880-03-13) (aged 87)
Selborne, England
Scientific career
Author abbrev. (zoology)Bell

Career
Terrapene clausa from Thomas Bell's "A Monograph of the Testudinata" London: 1832–1836

Bell, like his mother Susan, took a keen interest in natural history which his mother also encouraged in his younger cousin Philip Henry Gosse. Bell left Poole in 1813 for his training as a dental surgeon in London. He combined two careers, becoming Professor of Zoology at King's College London in 1836 (on the strength of amateur research) and lecturing on anatomy at Guy's Hospital. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1844. He was President of the Linnean Society in 1858.

Bell was at the heart of the scientific establishment and when Charles Darwin returned to London from the Beagle expedition on 2 December 1836, Bell was quick to take on the task of describing the reptile specimens.[1] He was also entrusted with the specimens of Crustacea collected on the voyage. He was the authority in this field; his book British Stalke-eyed Crustacea is a masterwork. He played a significant part in the inception of Darwin's theory of natural selection in March 1837 when he confirmed that the giant Galápagos tortoises were native to the islands, not brought in by buccaneers for food as Darwin had thought.[2] He supported the arrangements for publication of Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, but then was very slow to make progress on the work, and though the first parts of work were published in 1838, Bell's contribution on reptiles (Part 5) was published in two numbers, in 1842 and 1843,[3] and he subsequently failed to take any action on the Crustacea.[4]

As President of the Linnean Society he chaired the meeting on 1 July 1858 at which Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace first published their theories on natural selection in the joint presentation of papers On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection. He apparently disapproved, and in his annual presidential report presented in May 1859 wrote that "The year which has passed has not, indeed, been marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear".[5][6]

Gilbert White's house, The Wakes, now a museum, viewed from the back gardens in 2010

In his seventieth year Bell retired to The Wakes, a house at Selborne, where he took a keen interest in its former resident, the amateur naturalist Gilbert White.[7] In 1877 he published a new edition of White's book The Natural History of Selborne.[7] Bell died at Selborne in 1880.[7]

Personal life
Illustration (Plate 17) for one of Bell's articles "Observations on the Neck of the Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus tridactylus, Linn.", by Jane S. Bell[8]

Bell married Jane Sarah, daughter of William Roberts, Esq., at St Mary's Church, Rotherhithe on 3 December 1832.[9] The couple had one child, a daughter, Susan Gosse,[10] born 29 March 1836.[11] Susan pre-deceased her parents on 4 January 1854.[10] Jane died on 29 June 1873.[10]

A few of Bell's works were illustrated by Jane, who signed herself Jane S. Bell.

Legacy

Bell is commemorated in the scientific names of several species and subspecies of reptiles.[12]

Works
Chelonoidis denticulata/Testudo tabulata from Thomas Bell's A Monograph of the Testudinata London: 1832–1836
  • A Monograph of the Testudinata. 1832–1836. – summarizes all the world's turtles, living and extinct. The forty plates are by Jane S. Bell, James de Carle Sowerby and Edward Lear.
  • A History of British Quadrupeds. 1836.
  • A History of the British Stalk-eyed Crustacea. Paternoster Row, London: John Van Voorst. 1844–1853.
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See also
  • Category:Taxa named by Thomas Bell (zoologist)

References
  1. Desmond & Moore 1991, p. 204.
  2. Desmond & Moore 1991, p. 220.
  3. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online: The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle – bibliography by Freeman, R. B. (1977) and links to online texts and images of each of the nineteen numbers.
  4. Keynes 2000
  5. Browne 2002, pp. 40–42
  6. Keynes 2000
  7. "Bell, Thomas". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2029. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  8. Bell, Thomas (1834). "XII. Observations on the Neck of the Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus tridactylus, Linn". The Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. 1 (2): 113–116.
  9. "Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries". The Morning Post (19341). 4 December 1832. p. 8. Married: on the 3rd inst., at St. Mary's, Rotherhithe by the Rev. Thomas Hardwicke, Thomas Bell Esq., of New Broad-street, to Jane Sarah, only daughter of the late William Roberts, Esq., of the former place.
  10. "Thomas Bell (image of memorial stone)". Find a Grave. Retrieved 16 January 2019. In memory of Thomas Bell F.R.S. Professor of Zoology in King's College London. For some time Secretary and Vice-President of the Royal Society and President of the Linnean Society:- of "The Wakes" in this Parish, who died March 13th 1880, aged 87 years. And of Jane Sarah, his Wife, Daughter and sole heir of William Roberts, Esq., of Ruabon, Denbighshire, who died June 29th 1873, aged 75 years. Also of Susan Gosse, their only Child, who died Jan. 4th 1854, aged 17 years.
  11. "Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries". The Morning Chronicle (20378). 30 March 1836. Births: The Lady of Thomas Bell, Esq., of New Broad-street, of a daughter.
  12. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Bell, T.", p. 22).

Bibliography
  • Browne, E. Janet (1995), Charles Darwin: vol. 1 Voyaging, London: Jonathan Cape, ISBN 1-84413-314-1
  • Browne, E. Janet (2002), Charles Darwin: vol. 2 The Power of Place, London: Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0-7126-6837-3
  • Desmond, Adrian; Moore, James (1991), Darwin, London: Michael Joseph, Penguin Group, ISBN 0-7181-3430-3
  • Keynes, Richard (ed.) (2000), "Specimen Lists", Charles Darwin's zoology notes & specimen lists from H.M.S. Beagle., Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
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