in 1804, charles bell left for london and in 1805 had established himself in the city by buying a house on leicester street. from this house bell taught classes in anatomy and surgery for medical students, doctors, and artists. in 1809, bell was among a number of civilian surgeons who volunteered to attend to the many thousands of ill and wounded soldiers who had retreated to corunna, and 6 years later he again voluntarily attended to the ill and wounded in the aftermath of the battle of waterloo. regrettably, of bell's 12 amputation cases, only one man survived. in addition to the amputation surgeries, bell was quite fascinated by musket-ball injuries and in 1814, he published a "dissertation on gunshot wounds". a number of his illustrations of the wounds are displayed in the hall of the royal college of surgeons of edinburgh.