and for that reason Dr. Monro and any others that I have spoken to here upon the subject approve of the scheme [the Paris visit] very much". In 1770 after passing the necessary examinations, he was elected a freeman surgeon-apothecary of the Incorporation of Surgeons of Edinburgh later the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. In 1772 Bell was in London from where he wrote to Dr. Cullen thanking him for his letter of introduction to John Hunter (1728–1793) whom he described as "the most agreeable and at the same time the most useful acquaintance I ever met with." He also visited and observed the London surgeon Percivall Pott (1714–1788) to whom he would later dedicate his treatise on ulcers. Bell's interest in science is evident from his description of a lecture which he attended at the Royal Society given by Joseph Priestley. Priestley's suggestion that atmospheric air contained fixed air (carbon dioxide) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen) clearly made an impression on Bell who noted from the lecture that "air can be spoiled by one or more animals breathing it in a confined space and become unfit for purposes of life" Practice On return to Edinburgh he set up in surgical practice and within a year, at the age of 24, was elected one of four attendant surgeons to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Surgeons attended in rotation and Bell managed to remain a surgeon to the Infirmary for eighteen years, an unusually long period. This may have been because of his lifelong friendship with James Gregory, the Professor of Physic, and the most influential member of the Infirmary Board of Management. In 1800 there was pressure from younger members of the Royal College of Surgeons to change the system of appointment of surgeons to the Infirmary, making shorter appointments so that more junior surgeons might gain Infirmary experience. At that time, now well established in practice, Bell was content to step down, but he wrote to the College setting out the case for 'permanent appointments' to the Infirmary rotation, a view which had been also promoted by Gregory. Of the 23 members of the Royal College of Surgeons asked to vote on the matter, not one supported Bell's proposal. John Bell (1763–1820), a successful teacher of anatomy in his own extramural school and an accomplished Edinburgh surgeon (but not related to Benjamin Bell), failed to gain appointment to the