NOTICE OF THE LATE SIR CHARLES BELL. 403 



theory that ganglia were for the purpose of cutting off sensation, on the express 

 ground, that they were to be found on the posterior half of all the spinal nerves of 

 the voluntary muscles ; thus shewing that, to be a nerve of voluntary motion, was 

 by him regarded as conclusive evidence that it must also be a nerve of sensation, 

 and that he believed all those spinal nerves which passed through ganglia to be 

 motor nerves. On this Sir CHARLES BELL justly remarks, " If I had ascertained 

 nothing more than that no motor nerve passes through a ganglion, the observa- 

 tion would have been important towards the true doctrine of the nerves." 



BICHAT (a distinguished name in modern anatomy and physiology) distinctly 

 asserts that there are not nervous cords appropriated to sensation, and others to 

 motion. 



BARON CUVIER maintained, that the difference in the functions of the nerves 

 depends rather on the different organization of the parts to Avhich they are dis- 

 tributed, than on any essential difference between themselves ;* and M. SEREES, 

 in his work on Comparative Anatomy, published as late as 1824, quotes with ap- 

 probation this opinion of CUVIER'S, even maintaining, in conformity with it, that 

 in certain animals a part of the fifth nerve answers the purpose of the optic 

 nerve ; and without making allusion to Sir CHARLES BELL'S experiments and ob- 

 servations. But he admits, at the same time, that it is doubtful whether these 

 animals are realty endowed with the sense of sight. 



Dr BARCLAY of Edinburgh, a learned man and an eminent anatomist, who 

 communicated the history of Anatomy to the Edinburgh Encyclopedia published 

 in 1810 or 1811, not only makes no allusion to any discovery of the varied func- 

 tions of the nerves, but, having related the discovery of the lymphatics, and de- 

 scribed their functions, referring to the conflicting claims of HUNTER and of MONRO, 

 he expressly tell us, that this system of absorbents is the last great and leading 

 discovery made in anatomy by means of dissection. 



In short, that which has already been stated to have been the doctrine of the 

 Anatomical Schools, viz. that the same nerves ministered at once to motion and 

 sensation, that the impulses of volition and of sensation were transmitted back- 



* " On pourrait penser d'apres cela qu'au fond toutes les parties du systeme nerveux sont homogenes 

 et susceptibles d'un certain nombre do fonctions semblables, a pou pres comme les fragmens d'un grand 

 aimant que 1'on brise deviennent chacun un aimant plus petit, qui a ses poles et son courant ; et que ce 

 sont des circonstances accessoires seulement, et la complication des fonctions que ces parties ont a rem- 

 plir dans les animaux tres eleves, qui rendent leur concours necessaire, et qui font que chacune d'elles a 

 une destination particuliere II paroit, en effet, quant a ce dernier point, que si certains nerfs ne nous 

 procurent que des sensations determinees, et que si d'autres ne remplissent egalement que des fonctions 

 particulieres, cela est du a la nature des organes exterieurs dans lesquels les premiers se terminent, et a 

 la quantite de vaisseaux sanguins que recoivent les autres, a lours divisions, a leurs reunions, en un mot, 

 a toute sorte de circonstances accessoires, plutot qu'a leur nature intime." Lemons d' Anatomie Com- 

 pare.e de CUVIER, torn, ii., p. 95. 



