Bell Taylor | |
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| Born | (1829-09-02)2 September 1829 |
| Died | 14 April 1909(1909-04-14) (aged 79) Beechwood Hall |
| Occupation(s) | Surgeon, writer |
Charles Bell Taylor (2 September 1829 – 14 April 1909) was an Englishophthalmic surgeon, known also as a campaigner against theContagious Diseases Act andvivisection.
Born inNottingham on 2 September 1829, he was son of Charles Taylor by his wife Elizabeth Ann Galloway; his father and brother were veterinary surgeons in the town. After brief employment in the lace warehouse of his uncle, William Galloway, he apprenticed himself to Thomas Godfrey, a surgeon atMansfield.[1]
Taylor was admitted member of theRoyal College of Surgeons of England in 1852, and a licentiate of theSociety of Apothecaries in 1855. He graduated M.D. at theUniversity of Edinburgh in 1854, and in 1867 he obtained the diploma of fellow of theRoyal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. In 1854 Taylor was pursuing medical studies in Paris. He acted for some time as medical superintendent at the Walton Lodge Asylum,Liverpool, then in 1859 returned to Nottingham, where he lived for the rest of his life. In that year he joined the staff of the newly established Nottingham and Midland Eye Infirmary.[1]
Especially in cases ofcataract, Taylor gained a high reputation as a surgeon, and an international practice. He always operated by artificial light, would not usechloroform, and never employed a qualified assistant.[1] His patients includedMary Gove Nichols, to whom he restored full sight in 1868.[2]
Taylor took a prominent, and professionally unpopular, part in securing the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act.[1] He was recruited to the campaign against the Act by a newspaper article written byRobert Eli Hooppell.[3][4] Around this time he agreed to lead opposition to the Act, in correspondence with Daniel Cooper of theSociety for the Rescue of Young Women and Children; and found an ally in Charles Worth, another Nottingham surgeon.[5] He offered the 1869Social Science Congress in Bristol a paper against the Act, and was turned down. He then organised a fringe meeting on the opening day of the Congress, attended by 70.[4]
Taylor was also a determinedopponent of vivisection andcompulsory vaccination. He held strong views on diet, was an abstainer from alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee, and took only two meals a day. He was also an uncompromisingindividualist.[1]
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Taylor died, unmarried, at Beechwood Hall, near Nottingham, on 14 April 1909, and was buried at theNottingham General Cemetery. Most of his estate of £160,000 was distributed by his will among theBritish Union for the Abolition of Vivisection; the London Anti-Vivisection Society; the British committee of theInternational Federation for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice; theNational Anti-Vaccination League; and theRoyal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[1]
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1912). "Taylor, Charles Bell".Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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