82 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



some or none — according to the evidence that he may have to 

 offer ; but he is certainly entitled to nothing but discredit if 

 he set to work to improve a poor claim by tampering with 

 his own evidence ; this, as we shall see, is precisely what Bell 

 did in 1824, when he republished his papers of the three 

 preceding years. Let us examine his claim. 



Bell and the Nerve Roots. — Bell's claim to the discovery that 

 motor impulses pass by the anterior, sensory impulses by the 

 posterior spinal roots is based (1) upon a small i2rno booklet 

 of 32 pages entitled Idea of a New Anatony of the Brain, printed 

 (not published) in 181 1 for the observations of the author's 

 friends 1 ; (2) upon the first of a series of six papers published 

 from 1 82 1 to 1829 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal 

 Society. 



The booklet of 181 1, although short enough, is not worth 

 reprinting here in full ; the passages upon which Bell himself 

 laid stress in the preface of his Nervous System of 1830 contain 

 all that can be deemed as having any bearing upon the 

 question. 



Bell, 181 1, Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, p. 21 : 



" I took this view of the subject. The medulla spinalis has 

 a central division, and also a distinction into anterior and 

 posterior fasciculi, corresponding with the anterior and posterior 

 portions of the brain. Further, we can trace down the crura 

 of the cerebrum into the anterior fasciculus of the spinal marrow, 

 and the crura of the cerebellum into the posterior fasciculus. I 

 thought that here I might have an opportunity of touching 

 the cerebellum, as it were, through the posterior portion of the 

 spinal marrow and the cerebrum by the anterior portion. To 

 this end I made experiments which, though they were not 

 conclusive, encouraged me in the view I had taken. I found 

 that injury done to the anterior portion of the spinal marrow 

 convulsed the animal more certainly than injury done to the 

 posterior portion ; but I found it difficult to make the experi- 

 ment without injuring both portions. 



" Next, considering that the spinal nerves have a double 

 root, and being of opinion that the properties of the nerves 

 are derived from their connections with the parts of the brain, 



1 Idea of a New Anatony of the Brain, submitted for the observations of his 

 friends by Charles Bell, F.R.S.E. (small 8vo, printed by Strahan & Preston, 

 printers, London; without date, but on collateral evidence the date 181 1 is 

 accepted). Sir Charles Bell's copy of this rare pamphlet was presented to the 

 Royal Society by Professor Jeffrey Bell in 1893. A reprint is given in Humphry 

 and Turner's J on rnal of A natomy, 1869 (vol. iii. p. 147). 



