"the curfew tolled the knell of parting day," a Laudo Deum verum, plebem voco, congrego clerum, Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango, does not omit to notice this fear-inspiring sound. Indeed, in this beautiful poem, all the joys, sorrows, pangs, emotions, terrors, and blessings attendant on humanity, in connection with the part which the bell plays, are most vividly portrayed. Even the description of the various operations of mixing and fusing the alloy, and pouring the liquid metal into the mould prepared to give it its shape, are happily interwov en with all those uses which the bell is thereafter to serve. Each phase of the process suggests its appropriate phase of human life; and the story of the bell draws forth those admirable pictures of the infant presented at the baptismal font-of the maiden at the altar of the sweet ministrations of maternity and home-of man's ambition, and woman's love-such as the hand of a master-workman alone can produce. The fire-bell is also well described by the American poet, Edgar A. Poe: Hear the loud alarum bells- What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells! How they scream out their affright! In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, one of their distinguishing features. Several were used in a single church, as is still the custom, when arranged in chimes, or, as in Roman Catholic countries, without regard to harmony of tones. The church of the abbey of Croyland in England had one great bell named Guthlac, presented by the abbot Turketulus, who died about the year 870, and subsequently 6 others, presented by his successor, Egelric, and named Bartholomew and Betelin, Turketul and Tatwin, Bega and Pega. When all these were rung together, Ingulphus says, "Fiebat mirabilis harmonia, nec erat tunc tanta consonantia campanarum in tota Anglia."-But Russia exceeds all other nations in its fondness for bells. In Moscow alone, before the revolution, there were no less than 1,706 large bells; in a single tower there were 37. One was so large that it required 24 men to ring it, and this was done by simply pulling the clapper. Its weight is estimated at 288,000 lbs. The great bell cast by order of the empress Anne, in 1653, and now lying broken upon the ground, is estimated to weigh 443,772 lbs.; it is 19 feet high, and measures around its margin 63 feet 11 inches. The value of the metal alone in this bell is estimated to amount to over $300,000. Whether this bell was ever hung or not, authorities appear to differ. The following notice of the bells of Moscow, and of the great bell in particular, is from Clarke's Travels: "The numberless bells of Moscow continue to ring during the whole of Easter week, tinkling and tolling without harmony or order. The large bell near the cathedral is only used upon important occasions, and yields the finest and most solemn tone I ever heard. When it sounds, a deep hollow murmur vibrates all over Moscow, like the fullest tones of a vast organ, or the rolling of distant thunder. This bell is suspended in a tower called the belfry of St. Ivan, beneath others which, though of less size, are enormous. It is 40 ft. 9 in. in circumference, 16 in. thick, and it weighs more than 57 tons. The great bell of Moscow, known to be the largest ever founded, is in a deep pit in the midst of the Kremlin. The history of its fall is a fable, and as writers continue to copy each other, the story continues to be propagated; the fact is, the bell remains where it was originally cast; it was never suspended. The Russians might as well attempt to suspend a first-rate line of battle ship with all its guns and stores. A fire took place in the Kremlin, the flames of which caught the building erected over the pit in which the bell yet remained; in consequence of this the metal became hot, and water thrown to extinguish the fire fell upon the bell, causing the fracture which has taken place....The bell is truly a mountain of metal. They relate that it contains a very large proportion of gold and silver, for that while it was in fusion the nobles and the people cast in as votive offerings their plate and money....I endeavored in vain to assay a small part. The natives regard it with superstitious veneration, and they would not allow even a grain to be filed off; at the same time, it may be said, the compound has a white, shining appearance, unlike bell-metal in general, and perhaps its silvery appearance has strengthened, if not given rise to a conjecture respecting the richness of its materials. On festival days the peasants visit the bell as they would a church, considering it an act of devotion, and they cross themselves as they descend and ascend the steps leading to the bell." After Mr. Clarke's visit the czar Nicholas, in the year 1837, caused the great bell to be taken out of the deep pit in which it lay, and to be placed upon a granite pedestal. Upon its side is seen, over a border of flowers, the figure of the empress Anne in flowing robes. The bell has been consecrated as a chapel; and the door is in the aperture made by the piece which fell out. The size of the room is 22 ft. diameter, and 21 ft. 3 in. in height.-The bells of China rank next in size to those of Russia. In Pekin, it is stated by Father Le Compte, there are 7 bells, each weighing 120,000 lbs. Excepting the bells recently cast for the new houses of parliament, the largest of which weighs 14 tons, there is only 1 bell in England larger than that upon the city hall in New York city. It was cast in 1845 for York Minster, and weighs 27,000 lbs., and is only 7 feet 7 inches in diameter. The great Tom of Oxford weighs 17,000 lbs.; and the great Tom of Lincoln 12,000 lbs. The bell of St. Paul's in London is 9 feet diameter, and weighs 11,500 lbs. One placed in the cathedral of Paris, in 1680, weighs 38,000 lbs. Another in Vienna, cast in 1711, weighs 40,000 lbs.; and in Olmutz is another weighing about the same. The famous bell called Susanne of Erfurt is considered to be of the finest bell metal, containing the largest proportion of silver; its weight is about 30,000 lbs. It was cast in 1497. Luther, when a schoolboy, must have heard its earliest peals, and in later years have welcomed its sound at each return to Erfurt. At Montreal, Canada, is a larger bell than any in England. It was imported in 1843 for the Notre Dame cathedral. Its weight is 29,400 lbs. In the opposite tower of the cathedral is a chime of 10 bells, the heaviest of which weighs 6,043 lbs., and their aggregate weight is 21,800 lbs.-There are few bells of large size in the United States. The heaviest is the alarm bell on the city hall in New York. It was cast in Boston, and weighs about 23,000 lbs. Its diameter at mouth is about 8 feet; its height about 6 feet, and thickness at the point where the clapper strikes 6 or 7 inches. The bell now on the hall of independence in Philadelphia, is celebrated as being connected with the ever memorable 4th of July, 1776, when it first announced by its peal the declaration then made, the most important event in the history of our country. It was imported from England in 1752, and owing to its being cracked on trial by a stroke of the clapper was recast in Philadelphia under the direction of Mr. Isaac Norris, to whom we are probably indebted for the following in scription, which surrounds the bell near the top, from Leviticus xxv. 10: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." Immediately beneath this is added: "By order of the assembly of the province of Penn. for the State House in Phil." Under this again, "Pass & Stow, Phil., MDCCLIII." In 1777, during the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, the bell was removed to Lancaster. After its return it was used as state house bell until the erection of the present steeple with its bell in 1828. Then it ceased to be used excepting on extraordinary occasions. Finally it was removed to its present appropriate resting-place in the hall of independence. Its last ringing, when it was unfortunately cracked, was in honor of the visit of Henry Clay to Philadelphia. There are no other bells of particular interest in this country. Those used upon the fire alarm towers in our cities are from 10,000 to 11,000 lbs. weight. They are hung in a fixed position and struck by a hammer, instead of being turned over.Bells have been made of various metals. In France formerly iron was used, and in other parts of Europe brass was a common material. In Sheffield, England, the manufacture of caststeel bells has been recently introduced; the material is said to have the advantages over the ordinary composition, of greater strength and less weight and cost. As the swinging of heavy bells often endangers the towers in which they are hung, it is of no little consequence to reduce as much as possible their weight. Steel bells are cast by pouring the contents of the steel pots into the bell mould instead of into the ordinary ingot moulds. Their tone is said to be harsh and disagreeable. Cast-steel drills, bent into the form of a triangle and suspended to a building or post, are much used in place of bells about mining establishments. Bell-metal is an alloy of copper and tin in no fixed proportion, but varying from 66 to 80 per cent. of copper, and the remainder tin. But other metals are also often introduced, as zinc, with the object of adding to the shrillness of the sound, silver to its softness, and also lead. Dr. Thompson found an English bell-metal to consist of copper 800 parts, tin 101, zinc 56, and lead 43. Cymbals and gongs contain 81 copper and 19 tin. Mr. Denison, who has charge of the founding of the new bells for the British houses of parliament, thinks the use of silver is entirely imaginary; and that there is no reason for believing it could be of any service. He condemns the use of all other materials but copper and tin, and advises that contracts for bells stipulate that the alloy shall consist of at least 20 per cent of tin, and the remainder copper. Three and a half to one is perhaps the best proportion. Much interesting information upon the qualities of the alloys and the forms of bells is contained in a paper recently presented by him to the royal institution of Great Britain. He regards the hemispherical form of modern bells as adapted only for giving a thin and poor sound, suitable for house clocks and such uses, but en tirely unfitted for the heavy, far-reaching, and pleasing tones required in large bells. The European process of casting bells is to make the mould in a depression in the sand floor of the foundery, piling up a hollow core of brickwork upon a solid foundation, within which a fire is kept burning to preserve the liquid metal, when poured around it, from too rapid cooling. The outer surface of the core is the shape of the inner surface of the bell. To give the outer surface, a cover of earthenware is fashioned to fit over the core, leaving be tween these a vacant space to be filled with the metal. This arrangement is deficient in not providing proper escape for the gases, which are engendered in heavy castings in the earth, and which are liable to cause the metal to be porous, or, being highly inflammable, to explode with great damage. An improved process has been introduced at Meneely's bell foundery at Troy, New York, consisting in the use of perforated iron cases, the outer one in the shape of the bell, and the inner one the core, which sets in the centre of its saucer-shaped foundation. Each of these receives a coating of loam, the outer one within, and the core around its outside; but over the latter is first wrapped a straw rope, which taking fire and burning slowly, as the metal is poured between the 2 cases, leaves a free space for the bell to contract in cooling without straining. The perforations through the cases let out the vapors, and also serve to keep the coating of loam in its place. As the gas escapes through these holes, it burns with a pale blue flame without risk, the whole apparatus being placed above the level of the ground. Flanges between the 2 cores keep them at the required distance from each other, in order to give the proper thickness of metal.-The best proportion of the height of a bell to its greatest diameter is said, by foreign authorities, to be as 12 to 15. In conformity to the laws of acoustics, the number of vibrations of a bell varies in inverse ratio with its diameter, or the cube root of its weight; so, for a series of bells forming a complete octave, the diameters should go on increasing with the depth of tone, as for do, 1; re, &; me, &; fa, 4; sol, &; la, }; si, 185; do, t. A work on church bells, by the Rev. W. C. Lukis, appeared at London in 1857. BELL, a central county of Texas, watered by Little river and its head streams the Leon and Lampasas. It has an area of about 850 square miles, a fine, rolling surface, and a soil consisting of sandy loam, well adapted to pasturage. Forests of cotton wood and live oak cover about of the land. Pure water is abundant, and the climate generally healthy. The county was formed from Milam in 1850, and its increase from that period up to 1858 has been at least six-fold. Wheat and Indian corn are the staple productions. Value of real estate in 1857, $596,300; value of horses and cattle, $156,372; aggregate value of taxable property, $1,265,110 Capital, Cameron. Pop. in 1856, 4,431, of whom 560 were slaves. BELL, ANDREW, a elergyman of the English church, who introduced into the English schools what was termed the system of mutual instruction, born at St. Andrew's, Scotland, in 1753, died at Cheltenham, England, Jan. 27, 1832. After studying in the university of his native town, he visited the colonies of America, and in 1789 went to India, where at Madras he be came chaplain of Fort St. George, and engaged to instruct the orphan military asylum. He found in the mission schools of India a monitorial system, which on his return to England he explained in an elaborate treatise and proposed for adoption into English schools. The system consists in a division of the school into classes, and of the classes into pairs. The 2 members of a pair are each pupil and tutor of the other. Each class has a teacher and assistant teacher who assist the tutors, and a master, the only adult member of the system, has the general superintendence. It was not, however, till an analogous system had been introduced by the Quaker, Joseph Lancaster, into the schools of the dissenters, that Dr. Bell was authorized by the Anglican church to employ it in schools placed under his charge. He published several works upon educational subjects, and left all of his fortune for the endowment of various schools. BELL, BENJAMIN, a Scotch surgeon, born at Edinburgh, died near the beginning of the present century. After studying in the principal universities of the continent, he became one of the surgeons of the royal infirmary at Edinburgh. He wrote several professional works, of which the most important is his "System of Surgery." his work on the "Anatomy of Expression," which he had written in Edinburgh, and which was designed to show the rationale of those muscular movements which follow and indicate the excitement of the various passions and emotions. The work attracted attention, being valuable to the physician, since it showed how the countenance often betrays the nature of the disease, and its value to the painter is seen in the fact that Wilkie carefully studied it while drawing the human figure, and Ruskin often refers to it in his criticisms. It is also interesting as having occasioned the author those investigations which led him to his great discovery concerning the nervous system. He published in 1807 his "System of Operative Surgery," a work, the practical character of which renders it still useful. Letters which he this year wrote to his brother announced his new doctrine of the nervous system, but he did not publish his views for many years. He supported himself unconnected with any medical schools till 1811, when he was invited to the Hunterian school, and 3 years later he was appointed surgeon to the Middlesex hospital, an institution which during the 22 years of his connection with it he raised to the highest repute both by his striking manner of lecturing and his great dexterity as an operator. Zealous in the practice of military surgery, he visited the fields of Corunna and Waterloo, immediately after the battles, and gave his services to the wounded. He made known to the public in 1821 his ideas on the nervous system in a paper in the "Philosophical Transactions." It immediately arrested the attention of anatomists throughout Europe, some of whom contested with him the priority of discovery; yet it was BELL, SIR CHARLES, a British surgeon and fully proved that Dr. Bell had taught the docanatomist, born at Edinburgh, in Nov. 1774, trine for many years to his pupils, had explaindied at Hallow Park, in Worcestershire, April ed it in a pamphlet, a private edition only of 29, 1842. He began his education in the high which was printed, in 1810, and had clearly school and university of his native city, and stated it in letters to his brother in 1807, when pursued his professional studies under his elder all of his rivals were teaching the old theory. brother John, who was already distinguished The principle of the discovery is that no one as an anatomist and surgeon. He quickly gave nerve conveys both motion and sensation, carevidence of his great talents, was admitted in ries both the impulses of volition from the brain 1799 to the college of surgeons, became at the and the impulses of the senses to the brain; but same time one of the surgeons to the royal infirm on the contrary, the nerves work only in one direcary, and while still a youth delivered lectures be- tion, one portion of them bearing messages from fore 100 pupils on the science of anatomy. He the body to the brain, and the other portion gave particular attention to dissections, which from the brain or will to the body. It had forhe illustrated by many careful drawings, some merly been believed that both impulses might of which were published, and he eagerly availed in some mysterious way be simultaneously and himself of all the opportunities afforded by the harmoniously communicated along the same infirmary for studying pathology and observing chord. It was shown by Dr. Bell that the the diseased appearances when bodies were dis- brain and spinal marrow are likewise divided sected, and in many cases he made representa- into 2 parts, which minister respectively to the tions of the morbid parts in models. Ambitious functions of motion and sensation; that those of a larger field of exertion, and weary of the roots which join the back part of the spinal dissensions which vexed the medical school of marrow are nerves of feeling, messengers from Edinburgh, he removed in 1806 to London, the senses, but incapable of moving the muswhere he immediately began a course of lec- cles, while those roots which have their origin tures, became acquainted with Sir Astley Coop- in the front column of the spinal marrow and er, Abernethy, and other famous surgeons, and the adjacent portion of brain are nerves of rapidly rose to distinction. He now published voluntary motion, conveying only the mandates of the will. He showed that though 3 distinct nerves may be bound together in a single sheath for convenience of distribution, they yet perform different functions in the physical economy, and have their roots divided at the junction with the brain. The nerves of the different senses are connected with distinct portions of the brain. Such is the outline of one of the greatest_discoveries in physiology, and which entitles Bell to a glory equal to that of Harvey. As Harvey annihilated the theory of the flux and reflux of the blood through the same organs, and discovered the law of its circulation through the veins and arteries, so Bell distinguished the 2 classes and separate functions of the nerves. For this discovery he received a medal from the royal society of London, in 1829, and upon the accession of William IV. he was invested, in company with Brewster, Herschel, and others, with the honor of knighthood, in the new order then instituted. He was offered the senior chair of anatomy and surgery in the London college of physicians, where his lectures were attended both by pupils and practitioners, and where he attracted crowds by a series of discourses on the evidence of design in the anatomy of the human body. His reputation was great also upon the continent, and Cuvier expressed his admiration of his abilities and labors. He published about this time 2 essays, "On the Nervous Circle," and "On the Eye," having reference to the theory of a 6th sense, and a treatise on " Animal Mechanics," for the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge. Being invited to take part in the great argument published by the bequest of the earl of Bridgewater, he wrote the admirable treatise on 66 The Hand," and he soon after assisted Lord Brougham in illustrating Paley's "Natural Theology." In 1836 he accepted the chair of surgery in the Edinburgh university, and his lectures there were attended by the most eminent literary and scientific men in that capital. He afterward visited Italy, making many observations, with which he enriched a new edition of the "Anatomy of Expression;" he died soon after returning to EngÎand. BELL, GEORGE JOSEPH, a Scotch lawyer and writer upon law, born at Fountainbridge, near Edinburgh, March 26, 1770, died in Edinburgh, Sept. 23, 1843. His first legal publication was a treatise on the laws of bankruptcy, which, in 1810, was enlarged and published under the title of "Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland." The third edition of this work, issued in 1816, gained for him the rare honor of a vote of thanks from the faculty of advocates. His subsequent works on the law of Scotland are standard text-books in the courts of that country, and are also referred to as authorities in England and America. Mr. Bell was at the head of 2 commissions for improving the administration of civil justice in Scotland, and from the year 1821 was professor in the university of Edinburgh. In 1831 he was appoint ed to one of the principal clerkships in the supreme court. BELL, HENRY, steam navigator, born at Torphichen, near Linlithgow, Scotland, April 7, 1767, died March 14, 1830. A millwright by trade, he went to London when his apprenticeship expired, and while in Mr. Rennie's service, conceived the idea of propelling vessels by steam ignorant, it would appear, of Millar's prior experiments, and of the fact that, nearly 3 years before, Robert Fulton had actually made a successful practical attempt on the Hudson. In 1811 Bell launched a boat on the Clyde, calling it the Comet, after the luminous appearance in the heavens during that year. He made a steam engine for this new craft, with his own hands, and the first trial of the boat took place on the Clyde, in January, 1812. Three-horse power was successfully applied at first, subsequently increased to 6. After numerous experiments and improvements, steam navigation was introduced into Scotland by Henry Bell. His first boat is preserved in the museum of Glasgow university. The city of Glasgow settled a small annuity on him, barely sufficient for his support, and the British government, not long ago, gave a small pension to his widow. A monument to his memory has been erected on the rock of Dunglass, a promontory on the Clyde, 23 miles from Dumbarton. BELL, JAMES, geographical writer, born at Jedburgh, in Scotland, 1769, died at Glasgow, 1833. Brought up as a weaver, he received the ordinary sound education which the very poorest can claim in Scotland. He became a manufacturer of cotton goods in Glasgow, and, being an indefatigable student, was an able teacher of the classics to young men preparing for the university. He was author of a well-arranged and copious "System of Popular and Scientific Geography," in 6 volumes, 8vo, which has been repeatedly reprinted; also of a Gazetteer of England and Wales." BELL, JOHN, Scottish traveller, born at Antermony, in the west of Scotland, 1691, died July 1, 1780. At the age of 23, he received the degree of M. D., and immediately after (July, 1714) was induced to repair to St. Petersburg, where Peter the Great received him kindly, and allowed him to be engaged as surgeon to an embassy about to proceed to Persia. Leaving St. Petersburg in July, 1715, he did not reach Ispahan, where the shah held his court, until March, 1717. He returned to St. Petersburg on the last day of 1718. His desire of adventure unabated, he departed in July, 1719, attached to an embassy to China, through Moscow, Siberia, and the great Tartar deserts, to the great wall of China, not reaching Pekin until November, 1720-the journey occupying 16 months. He resided half a year in Pekin, and arrived at Moscow early in Jan. 1722. The czar having made him his chief physician, he joined in the expedition headed by Peter himself, to assist the shah of Persia in routing the rebel Afghans, and returned |