i t Royal Socicij/. 



general system of lymphatics, diffused over the whole body and end- 

 ing in the subclavian vein, has been reserved almost for our own 

 time. There still remained a system the most important of all, the 

 medium connecting the sentient, the self-moving principle, with 

 the external frame ; the principle that imparts the vital energies to 

 common matter destined to lose them all when that communication 

 is withdrawn. The mere existence of nerves has indeed been long 

 known, but, till latter times, in a manner so imperfect that tendons 

 were blended with them, and the error has not yet entirely disap- 

 peared from the phrases of common speech. At last the nerves were 

 delineated on plates and described in words; their origins found in 

 the brain, the medulla oblongata, and the spinal cord ; their 

 courses traced through conglobate glands, and, after blending with 

 each other in a thousand different ways, they were found to con- 

 stitute a net- work surrounding and penetrating the whole animated 

 frame. Conjectures were fortned as to different functions being 

 imputable to different nerves, as to the use of ganglions, and as to 

 the probable cause of assimilated actions and of distant sympathies 

 residing in those nervous intersections. 



We are indebted to Mr. Bell for much more than realizing all that 

 could previously be considered but as mere hypothesis. We learn 

 from his most profound researches. That nerves subservient to the 

 mere functions of life may be traced, even in the human frame ex- 

 hibiting a simplicity of construction little different from those of 

 the lowest animals. Tliat, as the scale of being advances, nerves 

 are superadded differing in their origin, in the purposes for which 

 they serve, and of a complexity proportionate to the variety of 

 functions they have to p::ribrni, associating the actions and feelings 

 of parts otherwise unconnected, as is peculiarly observable in the 

 nerves affecting respiration and in those of the face; thus adapting 

 the whole frame to the performance of those complicated duties for 

 which it is designed. We further learn — That all the nerves con- 

 nected with voluntary muscles, and not these alone, have a double 

 origin arising from distinct roots, and froni distinct columns of the 

 spinal marrow; that each part continues separate from the other 

 throughout the whole of their course, and of their ramifications, 

 one part conveying the influence of the will, the other part trans- 

 mitting sensation in an opposite direction ; thus establishing a 

 circle of actions. — But lam conscious of my inability to convey any 

 adequate idea of those most important researches, the subject of 

 five communications printed in our Transactions for 1S21, 1822, 

 1823, 1826, and for the present year. 



To these I refer not medical gentlemen, for they, I am sure, 

 have already made them the subject of their most serious attention ; 

 but I refer every man of a liberal mind to whom science and know- 

 ledge are delightful in themselves *. 



On delivering the Medal in the name of the Royal Society, I 

 need only pronounce the simple word, Procede. 



• Cognitio ipsa rerum coiiMdcratioqiie delectat. — Cicero. 



Your 



