NOTES TO BOOK XVII. 523 



fibres of these roots, after being united in a single nervous 

 cord, are mingled together in order to supply the wants of 

 the skin and muscles. He developed this idea in a little 

 work 1 which was not intended to travel beyond the circle 

 of his friends. 11 Miiller goes on to say, that eleven years 

 later, Majendie prosecuted the same theory. But Mr. 

 Alexander Shaw, in 1839, published A Narrative of the 

 Discoveries of Sir Charles Bell in the Nervous System, in 

 which it appears that Sir Charles Bell had further ex- 

 pounded his views in his lectures to his pupils (p. 89), and 

 that one of these, Mr. John Shaw, had in various publica- 

 tions, in 1821 and 1822, further insisted upon the same 

 views ; especially in a Memoir On Partial Paralysis (p. 

 75). MM. Mayo and Majendie both published Memoirs 

 in August, 1822 ; and in these and subsequent works con- 

 firmed the doctrine of Bell. Mr. Alexander Shaw states 

 (p. 97), that a mistake of Sir Charles BelTs, in an experi- 

 ment which he had made to prove his doctrine, was dis- 

 covered through the joint labours of M. Majeudie and 

 Mr. Mayo. 



I conceive, therefore, that the text is correct in stat- 

 ing: that " the proposition here spoken of was first pub- 

 lished and taught by Sir Charles Bell ; after an interval 

 of some years, it was more distinctly delivered in the pub- 

 lications of Mr. John Shaw, Sir C. Bell's pupil. Soon 

 afterwards it was further confirmed and some parts of the 

 evidence corrected by Mr. Mayo, another pupil of Sir C. 

 Bell, and by M. Majendie." 



(w.) p. 468. In order to show that I am not unaware 

 how imperfect the sketch given in this work is, as a His- 

 tory of Physiology, I may refer to the further discussions 

 on these subjects contained in the Philosophy of the Indnc- 

 1 An Idea of a new Anatomy of the Brain, London, 1811. 



