Joseph Bell. Historical portrait of the Scottish surgeon Joseph Bell (1837-1911). Bell studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he later taught as a lecturer. One of his students was Arthur Conan-Doyle, who admired Bell's deductive powers and his application of scientific methods to solving crime. Conan-Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes was based largely on his old tutor. Bell also worked at the city's Royal Infirmary, where he started the first training course for nurses in Scotland.