THE DISCOVERY OF MOTOR AND SENSORY NERVE CHANNELS. 297 



Experiments have never been the means of discovery; and a survey of what has 

 been attempted of late years in physiology will prove that the opening of living 

 animals has done more to perpetuate error than to confirm the just views taken 

 from the study of anatomy and natural motions. 



' Surely it is time that the schools of this kingdom should be distinguished 

 from those of France. Let physiologists of that country borrow from us, and 

 follow up our opinions by experiments (see the experiments of M. Magendie on 

 the distinctions in the roots of the spinal nerves) ; but let us continue to build 

 that structure which has been commenced in the labours of the Monros and 

 Hunters.' 



At this period, then, Bell was in full controversy; in the following 

 year he hastens to publish a full account of his own discoveries under 

 the title ' An Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the 

 Human Body, with a Be-publication of the Papers delivered to the 

 Eoyal Society on the Subject of the Nerves,' by Charles Bell, Professor 

 of Anatomy and Surgery to the Eoyal College of Surgeons ; Teacher 

 of Anatomy in the School of Great Windmill Street, and Surgeon to 

 the Middlesex Hospital ; 8vo. London : Printed by Eyre & Spottis- 

 woode, 1824. 



From our present historical standpoint this is by far the most im- 

 portant of Bell's publications, for it is in fact the first edition of Bell's 

 ' Nervous System of the Human Body, ' which in one or other of the 

 two Third Editions of 1836 and 1844 is the source from which all 

 subsequent writers have derived their information. 2 



The title-page of Bell's 'Exposition,' &c, of 1824, carries as its 

 sub-title ' with a Be-publication of the Papers delivered to the Eoyal 

 Society on the Subject of the Nerves.' 



The preface (p. vi) states that the publication of the system in its 

 premature state is made in order to remedy a systematic attempt to 

 anticipate him and ' to assume whatever merit may belong to these 

 discussions. ' 



The introduction of 66 pages substantially incorporates all the 

 results published by Magendie and by Mayo during the two previous 

 years, but does not once mention their names. The only passage 

 that indicates to us the source of Bell's extension of knowledge is upon 

 p. 2 as follows : — 



'In France, where an attempt has been made to deprive me of the originality 

 of these discoveries, experiments without number and without mercy have been 



2 The edition of 1844 is a reprint of that of 1836. The second edition was pub- 

 lished in 1830 as an ' Edition de Luxe ' in quarto form for presentation to the King. 

 Copies of the third edition are to be found in any library. The first edition (an 

 exposition, &c), is comparatively rare. There is no copy of it in the library of the 

 Royal Society, nor in that of the Royal College of Physicians. Copies are to be 

 found in the libraries of the University of London, University College, and of the 

 Royal Society of Medicine. That the 'Exposition ' &c. of 1824 was regarded by 

 Bell as the first edition of his ' Nervous System ' is established by a footnote on 

 p. 14 of the 'Nervous System' of 1830. The editions of 1836 and" 1844 are both 

 entitled ' Third Edition.' The sequence is thus : — 



I. 1824 [First Edition] — ' An Exposition of a Natural System of Nerves of 



the Human Body. 

 II. 1830 [Second Edition] — 'The Nervous System of the Human Body.' 

 III. 1836 and 1844 Third Edition— 'The Nervous System of the Human Body.' 



