new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/specfun/bessel.m
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+## Copyright (C) 1996, 1997 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
+## any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the Free
+## Software Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
+## 02111-1307, USA.
+
+## The following functions are available for computing the values of
+## Bessel functions:
+##
+##   besselj (alpha, x)   Bessel functions of the first kind
+##   bessely (alpha, x)   Bessel functions of the second kind
+##   besseli (alpha, x)   modified Bessel functions of the first kind
+##   besselk (alpha, x)   modified Bessel functions of the second kind
+##
+## X must be a real matrix, vector or scalar.
+##
+## If ALPHA is a scalar, the result is the same size as X.  If ALPHA is
+## a range, X must be a vector or scalar, and the result is a matrix
+## with length(X) rows and length(ALPHA) columns.
+##
+## ALPHA must be greater than or equal to zero.  If ALPHA is a range, it
+## must have an increment equal to one.
+
+function bessel ()
+  error ("bessel: you must use besselj, bessely, besseli, or besselk");
+endfunction