Infirmary rota, and began to campaign against what he saw as the injustice of the rota system. As part of this he wrote criticising Gregory's views, and this brought the Bells, Benjamin and John into conflict. This feud was at the heart of much of the criticism to which Benjamin Bell was subjected by his namesake. In 1773 Bell was a founding member of the Aesculapian Club. In 1775 Bell fell from horseback and sustained injuries that were to force him to take a rest from surgical practice for some two years. This rest was to prove fortuitous, for it allowed him time to reflect and to write, and his relatively wealthy background enabled him to do this without financial concerns. To further develop his interest in farming during this period of recuperation, he took the lease of Liberton Farm situated some two miles south of the centre of Edinburgh. Returning to what was to prove a highly successful career as a surgeon in Edinburgh, Bell went into practice with James Gibson (died 1815) who was to become president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1778–79. Later he formed another surgical partnership with James Russell (1754–1836) and Andrew Wardrop (died 1823). Bell, Wardop and Russell became the leading surgical practice in Scotland with a wide referral base. Wardrop reckoned Bell "… was a successful operator and during many years was more employed than any surgeon in Scotland". A fellow surgeon John Campbell, who had been apprenticed to Bell, went so far as to suggest that "…no one could die contented without having consulted Benjamin Bell." On 17 November 1783 Benjamin Bell was one of the founding Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He died at Newington House in south Edinburgh. He is buried with other family members, including his wife Grizzel Hamilton, in the south-east corner of Canongate Churchyard in Edinburgh. Bell's contributions to surgery Benjamin Bell is considered by many to have been the first Scottish scientific surgeon. This reputation was based largely on his influential textbook A System of Surgery. He can be regarded as a 'scientific' surgeon because of his rational thought processes which are apparent in his treatises, particularly his Treatise on Gonorrhoea virulenta and Lues venerea (1793). Another treatise, The Theory and Management of Ulcers, was first published in 1778 and is still considered one of the classics of 18th-century physiology.