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BELL, SIR CHARLES (1774—1842)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 685 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BELL, See also:SIR See also:CHARLES (1774—1842) , Scottish anatomist, was See also:born at See also:Edinburgh in See also:November 1774, the youngest son of the Rev. See also:William Bell, a clergyman of the Episcopal See also:Church of See also:Scotland; among his See also:brothers were the anatomist, See also:John Bell, and the jurist, G. J. Bell. After attending the high school and the university of Edinburgh, he embraced the profession of See also:medicine, and devoted himself chiefly to the study of See also:anatomy, under the direction of his See also:brother John. His first See also:Work, entitled A See also:System of Dissections, explaining the anatomy of the human See also:body, the manner of displaying the parts, and their varieties in disease, was published in Edinburgh in 1798, while he was still a See also:pupil, and for many years was considered to be a valuable See also:guide to the student of See also:practical anatomy. In 1802 he published a See also:series of engravings of See also:original drawings, showing the anatomy of the See also:brain and See also:nervous system. These drawings, which are remarkable for See also:artistic skill and finish, were taken from dissections made by Bell for the lectures or demonstrations he gave on the nervous system as See also:part of the course of anatomical instruction of his brother. In 1804 he wrote the third See also:volume, containing the anatomy of the nervous system and of the See also:organs of See also:special sense, of The Anatomy of the Human Body, by John and Charles Bell. In November of the same See also:year he migrated to See also:London, and from that date, for nearly See also:forty years, he kept up a See also:regular See also:correspondence with his brother See also:George, much of which was published in the Letters of Sir Charles Bell, &c., 1870. The earlier letters of this correspondence show how rapidly he See also:rose to distinction in a See also:field where success was difficult, as it was already occupied by such men as John See also:Abernethy, Sir See also:Astley See also:Cooper and See also:Henry Cline. Before leaving Edinburgh, he had written his work on the Anatomy of Expression, which was published in London soon after his arrival and at once attracted See also:attention.

His practical knowledge of anatomy and his skill as an artist qualified him in an exceptional manner for such a work. The See also:

object of this See also:treatise was to describe the arrangements by which the See also:influence of the mind is propagated to the See also:muscular See also:frame, and to give a rational explanation of the muscular movements which usually accompany the various emotions and passions. One special feature was the importance attributed to the See also:respiratory arrangements as a source of expression, and it was shown how the physician and surgeon might derive See also:information regarding the nature and extent of important diseases by observing the expression of bodily suffering. This work, apart from its value to artists and psychologists, is of See also:interest historically, as there is no doubt the investigations of the author into the nervous See also:supply of the muscles of expression induced him to prosecute inquiries which led to his See also:great discoveries in the See also:physiology of the nervous system. In 1811 Bell published his New See also:Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain, in which he announced the See also:discovery of the different functions of the nerves corresponding with their relations to different parts of the brain; his latest researches were described in The Nervous System of the Human Body (183o), a collection of papers read by him before the Royal Society. He discovered that in the nervous trunks there are special sensory filaments, the See also:office of which is to transmit impressions from the periphery of the body to the sensorium, and special motor filaments which convey motor impressions from the brain or other See also:nerve centre to the muscles. He also showed that some nerves consist entirely of sensory filaments and are therefore sensory nerves, that others are composed of motor filaments and are therefore motor nerves, whilst a third variety contains both kinds of filaments and are therefore to be regarded as sensory-motor. Furthermore, he indicated that the brain and See also:spinal See also:cord may be divided into See also:separate parts, each part having a special function—one part ministering to See also:motion, the other to sensation, and that the origin of the nerves from one or other or both of those See also:sources endows them with the See also:peculiar See also:property of the See also:division . whence they See also:spring. He also demonstrated that no motor nerve ever passes through a ganglion. Lastly, he showed, both from theoretical considerations and from the result of actual experiment on the living See also:animal, that the anterior roots of the spinal nerves are motor, while the posterior are sensory. These discoveries as a whole must be regarded as the greatest in physiology since that of the circulation of the See also:blood by William See also:Harvey. They were not only a distinct and definite advance in scientific knowledge, but from them flowed many practical results of much importance in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

It is not surprising that Bell should have viewed his results with exultation. On the 26th of November 1807, he wrote to his brother George:—" I have done a more interesting nova anatomic cerebri humani than it is possible to conceive. I lectured it yesterday. I prosecuted it last See also:

night till one o'See also:clock; and I am sure it will be well received." On the 31st of the same See also:month he wrote:-" I really think this new anatomy of the brain will strike more than the discovery of the lymphatics being absorbents." In 1807 he produced a System of See also:Comparative See also:Surgery, in which surgery is regarded almost wholly from an anatomical and operative point of view, and there is little or no mention of the use of medicinal substances. It placed him, however, in the highest See also:rank of See also:English writers on surgery. In 18o9 he relinquished his professional work in London, and rendered meritorious services to the wounded from Coruna, who were brought to the Haslar See also:hospital at See also:Portsmouth. In 181c he published a series of Letters concerning the Diseases of the Urethra, in which he treated of stricture from an anatomical and pathological point of view. In 1812 he was appointed surgeor to the See also:Middlesex hospital, a See also:post he retained for twenty-four years. He was also See also:professor of anatomy, physiology and surgery to the See also:College of Surgeons of London, and for many years teacher of anatomy in the school which used to exist in Great See also:Windmill See also:Street. In 1815 he went to See also:Brussels to treat the wounded of the See also:battle of See also:Waterloo. In 1816, 1817 and 1818, he published a series of Quarterly Reports of Cases in Surgery; in 1821 a volume of coloured plates with descriptive letterpress, entitled Illustrations of the great operations of Surgery, Trepan, See also:Hernia, Amputation and Lithotomy, and in 1824 Observations on Injuries of the Spine and of the Thigh See also:Bone. On the formation of University College, See also:Gower Street, he was for a See also:short See also:time See also:head of the medical See also:department.

In 1832 he wrote a See also:

paper for the Royal Society of London on the " Organs of the Human See also:Voice," in which he gave many illustrations of the physiological See also:action of these parts, and in 1833 a See also:Bridgewater treatise, The See also:Hand: its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincing See also:Design. Along with See also:Lord See also:Brougham he annotated and illustrated an edition of See also:Paley's Natural See also:Theology, published in 1836. The Royal Society of London awarded to him in 1829 the first See also:annual See also:medal of that year given by George IV. for discoveries in See also:science; and when William IV. ascended the See also:throne, Charles Bell received the See also:honour of See also:knighthood along with a few other men distinguished in science and literature.-BELL, H. G. 68 5 In 1836 the See also:chair of surgery in the university of Edinburgh was offered to him. He was then one of the foremost scientific men in London, and he had a large surgical practice. But his See also:opinion was " London is a See also:place to live in, but not to See also:die in "; and he accepted the See also:appointment. In Edinburgh he did not See also:earn great See also:local professional success; and, it must be confessed, he was not appreciated as he deserved. But honours came thick upon him. On the See also:continent of See also:Europe he was spoken of as greater than Harvey. It is narrated that one See also:day P. J.

Roux, a celebrated See also:

French physiologist, dismissed his class without a lecture, saying " C'est assez, messieurs, vows avez vu Charles Bell." During his professorship he published the Institutes of Surgery, arranged in the See also:order of the lectures delivered in the university of Edinburgh (1838); and in 1841 he wrote a volume of Practical Essays, two of which, " On Squinting," and " On the action of purgatives," are of great value. He died at Hallow See also:Park near See also:Worcester on the 28th of See also:April 1842.

End of Article: BELL, SIR CHARLES (1774—1842)

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