In 1811, he printed, for distribution among his friends, a small essay, entitled, Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, in which he, for the first time, announced those views of the nervous system on which so large a portion of his fame rests. In this work he contends,

"That the cerebrum and cerebellum are different in function as in form; that the parts of the cerebrum have different functions; and that the nerves which we trace in the body are not single nerves possessing various powers, but bundles of different nerves, whose filaments are united for the convenience of distribution, but which are distinct in office, as they are in origin from the brain.

"That the external organs of the senses have the matter of the nerves adapted to receive certain impressions, while the corresponding organs of the brain are put in activity by the external excitement. That the idea or perception is according to the part of the brain to which the nerve is attached; and that each organ has a certain limited number of changes to be wrought upon it by the external impression.

"That the nerves of sense, the nerves of motion, and the vital nerves, are distinct through their whole course, though they seem sometimes united in one bundle; and that they depend for their attributes on the organs of the brain to which they are severally attached."

In 1813, Sir C. Bell published, in folio, a volume of Engravings from Specimens of Morbid Parts, preserved in the Author's Collection in Windmill-street, and selected from the divisions, inscribed Urethra, Vesica, Ren, Morbosa et Læsa, containing specimens of every Disease which is attended with change of structure in these parts, and exhibiting the Injuries from the Bougie, Catheter, Caustic, Trochar, and Lithotomy-knife, incautiously used, with Observations. The extent of the collection would have enabled the author to treat of so great a variety of morbid cases, but the work did not proceed beyond the first fasciculus of twelve plates. The observations, by which they are accompanied, carry an especial interest to the practical

surgeon.

In 1814, he published his work on Gun-shot Wounds, which has been already noticed, as an appendix to his Operative Surgery.

In 1816, he commenced the publication of Surgical Observations; being a Quarterly Report of Cases in Surgery, treated in the Middlesex Hospital, in the Cancer Establishment, and in Private Practice. Five parts of this work appeared. The details of the cases are noted in their progress in the form of a journal, and the practical lessons are given in accompanying remarks, being selections from his clinical lectures. It is almost unnecessary to add that these reports contain a vast quantity of important matter upon the chief subjects of surgical practice.

In 1819, he published a very interesting Essay on the Forces which Circulate the Blood; being an Examination of the difference of the Motions of Fluids in Living and Dead Vessels; one object of which was to combat the doctrine of the French Physiologists. He contends that if the principles of mechanism, or of chemistry, be admissible in the explanation of vital phenomena, they are incapable of solving our difficulties. regard to the power of the heart, he says, that—

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Although it were admitted that the force of the heart is sufficient to carry the blood through the whole extent of the arterial system, it cannot be made to account for the inequalities which we observe in the force of the arterial actions. It cannot account for increase and diminution of secretion; for sudden and partial growth; for wasting and decay of parts, while the general body is vigorous. It will not account for an organ being plentifully supplied with circulating blood one hour, and the next left with a diminished quantity."

The heart must not be looked upon as the only agent circulating the blood; numerous experiments by Parry, and other physiologists, have shown that the arteries themselves are material instruments in carrying on this essential process of the animal system. The tortuous structure of particular arteries, chiefly supplying the superior portions of the body with blood, has generally been considered as designed for the purpose of retarding the current of blood circulating in those vessels. Mr. Abernethy has said that "None but a fool could believe that a curved artery could be for any other purpose:" but Sir Charles Bell has viewed the subject in another and more important point of view; and has pointed out a beautiful provision of nature, in adapting this particular conformation of parts to those situations in which the part supplied is subject to occasional increase of activity, namely, the uterus, testis, stomach, spleen, &c. Sir Charles shows,

That a tortuous artery is more capacious, more active; that its activity is more under the influence of the part; that in its activity it dilates more freely, as well as contracts more powerfully. In other terms, an artery, in proportion to its tortuosity, becomes less dependent on the force of the blood transmitted from the heart, more on the excitement of the organ which it serves.

Sir A. Carlisle connected the peculiarly tortuous arrangement of some arteries, in the tardigrade animals, with the slow motion of their muscles; but Sir Charles Bell has made it to account for their long-continued action in these animals.

In 1810 I have mentioned that Sir Charles Bell published Letters on the Urethra. In 1820 he put forth a more complete work on the diseases of this part of the body, together with that of the bladder, prostate, and rectum. Its title was A Treatise on the Diseases of the Urethra, Vesica Urinaria, Prostate, and Rectum. This edition was arranged and accompanied by notes, by his nephew, the late Mr. John Shaw. The criticisms of the editors of the foreign editions of this work, and the opinions of foreign authors on these diseases, render this edition a most useful manual or book of reference on the subjects treated of. An Appendix gives a description of the preparations by which the work was illustrated, and which formed the fourteenth division of the Museum at Great Windmill-street.

In 1824 Sir Charles Bell published Observations on Injuries of the Spine and of the Thigh Bone, in 4to. This work consists of two lectures delivered at the school in Great Windmill-street, the first of which was in vindication of the author's opinions against the remarks of Sir A. P. Cooper, Bart., and the second on the late Mr. John Bell's title to certain doctrines advanced by the same distinguished surgeon. The points of controversy, in the first lecture, relate particularly to the circumstances connected with Fractures of the Spine: how far the symptoms attendant upon this kind of accident may be attributed to the shock or concussion given to the spinal marrow, and the prognosis to be formed, according to the existence or absence of subsequent paralysis. Sir Charles's chief object in this lecture seems to be, to distinguish the symptoms of inflammation of the membranes from those of compression or concussion of the spinal marrow. He objects to the proposal of Sir A. Cooper to trepan, in cases of depressed bone occurring in fractures of the vertebræ. Sir Charles makes allusion to an extraordinary case, of which plates are given, where a separation had taken place between the last dorsal and first lumbar vertebræ, and the spinal marrow torn asunder, yet the child survived thirteen months after the accident, and then died of croup! In the second lecture, Sir Charles points out the importance of attending minutely to the anatomy of parts, in order correctly to understand the conditions produced by accident or disease. He shows the difference of structure of the centre, and of the extreme parts of the thigh bone, to illustrate necrosis. He points out the necessity of raising the thigh during the sawing of the bone in amputation of the thigh, to prevent projection of the bone, and commends the use of the double inclined plane, in fractures of the femur. He enters minutely into the actions of the muscles, particularly upon the trochanters, to illustrate the manner in which fractures of this part are to be treated. He upholds the reputation and originality of his distinguished brother, with respect to opinions generally en

tertained relative to fracture of the neck of the thigh bone; and throughout the work estimates, fully and justly, the advantages that arise from an acquaintance with the history and literature of the profession.

The most important professional studies of Sir Charles Bell are to be found in his various papers in the Philosophical Transactions, commencing in the year 1821, relating to the Nervous System. This work, which may be said to be still in progress, has been given also to the public, in a volume published in 1824, entitled An Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the Human Body; to which an Appendix was printed in 1827. Then followed a still more extended work, The Nervous System of the Human Body, embracing the papers delivered to the Royal Society on the subject of the Nerves, in 1830; and a still more complete edition, by the addition of cases and illustrations, in 1836.

Although we are acquainted with the offices of the brain and nervous system, we have no precise information as to their mode of operation. On this subject the learned and ingenious of all ages have speculated largely, but with little profit. Scanty, indeed, is the real knowledge which has resulted from their speculations. The brain, we know, has been most carefully and minutely dissected; each individual portion has been examined with unusual accuracy, and to each part it has been endeavoured to assign its separate function. Democritus, Anaxagoras, and others, dissected the brain 3000 years ago; and now, at this distant period, we are not able to pronounce further of this wonderful and anomalous organ, placed (as Harwood beautifully expresses it), "on the doubtful confines of the material and spiritual worlds, than our forefathers, who declared that it is the fountain and the reservoir, the beginning and the end, of the whole nervous system, where every idea originates, and to which every sensation is referred." The opinions of the ancients, as to the nature and uses of the nervous system, were very wide of the truth. Nerve is a term applied indiscriminately by them to tendon, to ligament, or to blood-vessel. The nerves were considered by Hippocrates to terminate in the bones and the muscles, and so to produce voluntary motion. The first anatomist who appears to have discovered the connexion which exists between the nerves and the brain, is Herophilus, and he looked upon them as the instruments of sensation. The nerves of sensation were regarded by Erisistratus as originating from the brain, but those of motion from the membranes. Galen fixed those of voluntary motion to spring from the spinal chord. It was in later times that the brain, and other parts of the nervous system began to be investigated with any beneficial result; and the progress of this knowledge has, doubtless, been much delayed by the manner in which the research has been prosecuted,

I allude to the way in which the brain has hitherto been displayed in ordinary dissection. There is, doubtless, much convenience in examining the brain, as we usually do, to detect its diseased condition, and the organ is thus less disturbed than by any other mode. This manner, for the purpose of examining the structure of the brain, is very justly condemned by Dr. Spurzheim. He remarks on the absurdity of cutting this organ horizontally or obliquely from above or from below, and removing it by slices. Such a mode of investigation cannot fail of destroying the different parts, and separating them from their natural connexions.

A knowledge of the functions of the nervous system, and the means by which they are exercised, are probably only to be obtained by the combined aid of minute anatomical investigation-a close attention to effects produced by a well-directed and arranged series of experiments upon living animals and an attentive observation of the phenomena which present themselves under disease. Pathology, has, perhaps, thrown more light upon physiology than any other means with which we are acquainted; but unless this can be applied in relation to structure, I believe that the functions are little likely to be developed.

One of the principal discoveries of modern times, as regards the anatomy of the nervous system, consists in having detected the origination of the nerves to be generally in pairs; and these to consist of anterior and posterior bundles the former taking an ascending and the latter a descending direction. This structure is best seen in the spinal chord, where these bundles are peculiarly distinct; and it is remarkable that no union of the fibres of the two portions takes place, until the posterior bundle has formed an enlargement or ganglion. Nerves belong either to the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla oblongata, or medulla spinalis; and are distributed to the organs of sense, the muscular system, and the vessels-hence, they have been considered as the nerves of the senses, vital and involuntary nerves, and nerves of voluntary motion. The distinction between nerves of sensation and nerves of motion is exceedingly important, and enables us to explain many hitherto inexplicable phenomena; and the structure of ascending and descending bundles, goes to assist us in the solution of many difficulties. In the introduction to the "Nervous System of the Human Body," Sir C. Bell thus expresses himself:

"The view which I have taken of the nerves has not been the result of hasty and premature conjecture, but of patient investigation. From the first year of my delivering lectures, my demonstrations of the brain were given in a manner not then common; and to this peculiarity in the manner in which I looked on the connexions of the brain, I trace