History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

Dr. Bell resigned in 1856, after a service of nine-
teen years, leaving the institution in a liighly pros-
perous condition. Twenty-five hundred patients
had been admitted under his charge. Tlie number
of institutions for the insane had increased in these
two decades from half a dozen to more than forty.
Dr. Bell left the McLean Asylum standing in the
front rank of these curative establishments, and
enjoying the confidence of the community to a rare
degree. No great change had been adopted in tlie
medicinal means, but the agents of moral treat-
ment, so called, had become more perfect, and
many ex])eriments and means of treatment had
been tried, to be accepted or discarded as expe-
rience directed. Important improvements in ventilation
and warming had been devised. Some
])linses of disease hitiierto undcscribed had been
detected, all of which added not a little to the
stock of knowledge in this specialty, and estab-
lished for their author a world-wide reputation.
For twenty years Dr. Luther V. BelLwas a citi-
zen of this city, and during his residence as physician
and superintendent of the McLean Asylum,
identified himself with the interests of the town
and its inliabitants, as he did with the larger in-
terests of the community in all public questions
and in matters ])ertaining to his special vocation.
His reports as chairman of the school committee
for the years 1815-46 and 1846-47 are unusually
long and minute, and show an earnest and
jealous regard for the welfare of our schools, and
a warm desire that they should attain that excel-
lence for which tliey liave been in later years con-
spicuous.
Luther Y. Bell was born in Francistown, Xew
Hampshire, December 20, 1806. His ancestors,
of Scotch-Irish stock, were among the earliest set-
tlers of New Hampshire, and the name of Bell has
been in continual prominence in the annals of the
state. The subject of this sketch — son of one
governor, nephew of another, the brother of a senator
and a chief justice — was graduated at Bow-
doin College in lS:i.'5, and at the Medical School at
Hanover three years later, while still in his minor-
ity. He began the practice of medicine in Derry
in 1831, married in 18-34, and continued in the
general practice of his profession till he was called
to the special service to which he gave the best
years of his life.
Becoming interested in the project of providing
public accommodations for the insane, he allowed
himself to be elected to the state leij-islature for the
SOMER VILLE. 333
furtherance of this object, and in 1837, while thus
engaged in his legislative duties, received a call to
undertake tlie superintendence of the oldest and
most prosperous institution for the insane in New
England, — the McLean Asylum, where for nearly
twenty years he was prominently before the eyes
of the town, the state, and the country.
He was for five years president and a leading
spirit of the Association of Superintendents of
North American Institutions for the Insane. In
1857 he was elected president of the Massachusetts
Medical Society. In 1830 he was a member of the
governor's council.
Resigning tlie superintendency of the Asylum in
1856, not old in years, but in delicate health, he
returned to private life, fixing his residence in
Charlestown. But, important and useful as his
life had been, it was not destined to go out without
a further and crowning service. xVt the begin-
ning of the Rebellion he promptly responded to the
call of his country; was commissioned surgeon of
the 11th Massachusetts Regiment, June 10, 1861,
made brigadier-surgeon in August, and medical
director of division when Hooker became major-
general. He was in the path of promotion to still
higlier fields of usefulness, when, at Camp Baker,
near Budd's Ferry, he was stricken down with
pericarditis, which terminated fatally on the sev-
enth day, — February 11, 1862.
Dr. Bell achieved his greatest success in the
specialty which" was the principal occupation of his
life, and upon the full and able performance of the
various duties incident to tlie many branches of
this calling his most enduring reputation will un-
doubtedly rest. When he assumed charge of the
McLean Asylum there were not more than half a
dozen such iiistitutions in the country, and he was
frequently called upon to give the aid of his experience
in the construction of new hospitals. The
system of moral treatment of the insane was rec-
ognized at this time, but the means for accom-
plishing this end were far from being perfect, and
it was under the administration of Dr. Bell that
many of the appliances and adjuncts for carrying
out this higlier treatment were adopted. Many
experiments were tried, some of which were aban-
doned, others continued. All the results of his nine-
teen years' experience were given to the public in
an interesting and elaborate series of annual re-
ports, which did much to increase the efficiency of
similar institutions in the country, and to maintain
and advance the reiuitation of tliat which he had