WILLIAM BLAIR BELL, F.R.C.S.
1871-1936
Professor William Blair Bell died suddenly of a heart attack, on Saturday,
January 25, 1936. He was the son of a surgeon, Mr. William Bell, M.R.C.S.,
studied medicine at King’s College Hospital, London, where he showed great
promise, gaining a number of prizes and scholarships. He was graduated B.S.
and M.D. of London University and shortly afterward was elected a fellow of
the Royal College of Surgeons, England, and a fellow of King’s College. I n
1905 he received an appointment to the staff of the Royal Infirmary, Liverpool, to which institution he ultimately became consulting gynecological and
obstetrical surgeon. From 1921 to 1931 he was Professor of Gynaecology
and Obstetrics at Liverpool University.
Professor Blair Bell’s services to his special fields were numerous and
varied, and he was an active worker in many professional societies and institutions. In 1911 he founded the Gynaecological Visiting Society of Great
Britain. He was president of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; at one time president of the Section of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
of the Royal Society of Medicine, and of the North of England Obstetrical
and Gynaecological Society. He was chairman of the executive committee
of the British Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a member of the
board of directors of the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the British
Empire. He also was an honorary fellow or member of various medical societies both British and foreign. He was an honorary LL.D. of Glasgow and
Liverpool, an honorary fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a
Commander of the Order of the Star of Rumania.
Blair Bell’s excellent text-book, The Principles of Gynaecology, reached
a fourth edition in 1934, and he contributed chapters to several systems of
surgery as well as many papers to professional journals. He was a member
of the editorial board of the AMERICAN
JOURNAL OF CANCER,
took a lively interest in the growth of that journal, and made many valuable suggestions for
its improvement.
Early in life Blair Bell showed an intense interest in various phases of investigation connected with his specialty. He was awarded the John Hunter
medal and triennial prize by the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons,
and the Astley Cooper prize for original work on the pituitary body. He was
one of the first to study the functions of that gland by modern experimental
methods and he made important clinical observations in addition. He was
best known in America, however, for his work with lead, first for his investigations on its toxic effects on the placenta in cases of industrial poisoning;
then as the inspirer of a long series of studies on the pharmacology and toxicology of the substance, and finally for his efforts to develop a cancer therapy
787
788
WILLIAM BLAIR BELL
by the intravenous injection of colloidal lead and other lead compounds, many
of which were prepared by Professor Heilbron of the University of Liverpool.
I n connection with this work he developed a research group known as the
Liverpool Medical Research Organization, whose extensive experinien tal work
on the toxicology and pharmacology of lead compounds was summarized in a
volume entitled Some Aspects of the Cancer Problem, published under his
editorship in 1930.
For a number of years Professor Blair Bell worked indefatigably in cancer
therapy, treating over 1000 patients, almost all advanced and hopeless cases.
The records of his clinical studies were admirably kept and two sets of microscopic slides were available to prove the diagnoses. While many interesting
palliations were observed, the number of patients actually cured for a fiveyear period did not exceed 50. The treatment was so dangerous and so difficult, requiring hospitalization and the most careful study of clinical symptoms
to avoid untoward results, that he finally arrived at the conclusion that the
method could not be generally employed.
Professor Blair Bell’s own work was so thoroughly done that he was resentful of slipshod work reported by others, and his delightful capacity for
rendering his enemies uncomfortable and occasionally ridiculous, by his spirited
retorts in controversy, would indicate that some Irish blood must have flowed
in his veins. The columns of the British Medical Journal furnish a number of
exceedingly telling letters of rebuttal and sharp thrusts at those who failed to
acknowledge the work of others. As a result not a little criticism was exerted
against Blair Bell’s fundamental ideas and his practical work with lead as well.
Only those who knew him can appreciate the hours and days of arduous labor
which went into his studies, He was never too busy to see a sick patient, day
or night, and his inspiration carried his colleagues on through many disappointments. Eventually he had the satisfaction of knowing that some of his theories which had been ridiculed proved to contain more than a grain of truth,
and that he would leave behind him the only group of hopeless and advanced
cancer cases which had been cured by medication. Up to the last Professor
Blair Bell was interested in the various synthetic lead compounds, some of
which were effective on animals but proved ineffective in human beings, and
he never gave up hope that some way might be developed, through patient
chemical investigation, by which the toxic properties of lead could be masked,
much as Ehrlich masked the toxic properties of arsenic, by suitable organic
combinations, and an effective therapy of cancer developed. His many friends
in Great Britain and America regret the passing of a brilliant and charming
personality, a good fighter, and a most loyal friend.