The JBC is named for Dr Joseph Bell (1837-1911). Educated
at the Academy and University in Edinburgh, Joseph Bell worked in the
Royal
Infirmary
in the city, and there started the first training course for nurses in
Scotland.
The Sherlock Holmes Connection
However, Bell is best known for providing the inspiration for Arthur
Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle met Dr. Bell in 1877 at the University of Edinburgh Medical
School.
Bell could tell patients their habits, their occupations, nationality, and often
their names, and rarely, if ever, made a mistake. "In teaching the treatment
of disease and accident," Dr. Bell stated, "all careful teachers have first to
show the student how to recognize accurately the case."
Teaching Observation
Dr Bell also believed that recognition depends on the accuracy and rapid appreciation
of small points in which the diseased state differs from a healthy state. "The
student must be taught how to observe," he stated. "To interest him in this kind
of work, we teachers find it useful to show the student how much a trained use
of the observation can discover in ordinary matters such as the prevous history,
nationality, and occupation of a patient." (1)
Acknowledgement
The JBC acknowledges with gratitude the permission granted by the Stisted family, descendants of Professor Joseph Bell, to use his name in association with the Centre.
