270 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



he might make sketches for his portfolio. The de- 

 mand for surgical service was so pressing that he gave 

 his entire time for weeks in caring for the disabled. 

 As soon as leisure could be obtained, he used his pen- 

 cil in making sketches. Some of these were after- 

 ward enlarged and colored, and now are regarded as 

 valuable contributions to both surgery and art. 



Before the time of John and Charles Bell, the func- 

 tions of the nervous system were not well understood, 

 though the anatomy of the brain and spinal cord had 

 been demonstrated at Bologna and Padua those me- 

 diaeval seats of anatomical and physiological learning. 

 Somniering and Meckel did good work in the way of 

 giving rational views of the brain and nerves ; and after 

 them came Monro, of Edinburgh, and Gall, of Vienna. 

 And about the time that considerable impulse had been 

 given to studies of the brain by Spurzheim, and the 

 labors of Reil had added to discoveries thus far made, 

 Mesmer appeared as a magneto-neurologist, yet con- 

 tributed little to what was already known in regard to 

 the brain and nerves. By the combined labors of all 

 investigators of the cerebro-spinal system, the brain 

 had been thoroughly dissected and mapped, and the 

 nerves were known to spring from the spinal cord in 

 pairs. The ganglion on the posterior nerve had been 

 observed and commented upon, and the functions of 

 sensation and motion had also been considered, and 

 even assured ; yet, before Charles Bell entered the 

 field as an original experimenter, it had not been 

 demonstrated that sensory and motor nerves, in the 

 same bundle, could be traced to separate parts of the 

 spinal cord. 



In a small essay, entitled Idea of a New Anatomy 

 of the Brain, published in 1811, Sir Charles Bell con- 



