640 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 
of great size; the one a continuation of the superior maxillary branch of the 
fifth, the other the continuation of the respiratory or seventh.’ 
It is perfectly clear from this extract that Bell, of his own knowledge, was 
not acquainted with the nerves of the elephant’s trunk, nor with Blair’s descrip- 
tion of them. ‘The whole of his paper is directed to support his speculation that 
the facial muscles have a double nerve-supply by an ‘ original’ and by a ‘super- 
added’ nerve. 
It is equally clear that his pupil Mayo had given special attention to the 
subject, and that he was acquainted with its literature. He does not quote 
Blair’s actual words, but mentions what he reads from them as their essential 
point, and gives a precise bibliographical reference, from which any careful 
reader—then or now—is enabled to draw his own conclusions. 
Mayo writes, at the end of his own first publication on the subject at p. 119 
of his ‘ Anatomical and Physiological Commentaries’ of July 1822 :-— 
‘It remains for the reader to decide whether Mr. Bell’s experiments are satis- 
factory, and bear out his inferences; whether the latter, coupled with my former 
observations on the five respiratory nerves of this author, leaves his theory 
tenable; and perhaps finally to determine whether there exists in the whole of 
Mr. Bell’s essay, after the deduction of his controvertible statements, more than 
one correct inference. I here allude to Mr. Bell’s experimental confirmation of 
an opinion which, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, occurred to Dr. 
Blair! on his minute examination of the proboscis of an elephant, viz. that the 
infra-orbital nerves are nerves of touch. 
Blair writes? of the nerves of the proboscis on p. 84 :— 
‘This extraordinary part did not want for Nerves sufficient for it, no more 
than Blood-vessels: For first, it has the nervus Olfactorius, whereof hereafter, 
whereby ’tis endu’d with a most acute Sensation of Smelling. 2dly the afore- 
said second Branch of the fifth Pair; which accompany the Blood vessels, is 
with them dispers’d throughout the whole substance of the Proboscis; by which 
it has so acute a sensation of Touching or Feeling, wherewith this Member is 
more signally endued; and by which it avoids whatever is hurtful to it... . 
3dly the hard portion of the Nervus Auditorius, which tho’ it be dispers’d in 
the Muscles of the Face in Human Subjects, yet in Quadrupeds, such as Oxen, 
it continues undivided, till it comes to the angle of the lips... This seems to 
be chiefly adapted for the different motions of the Proboscis; for as we see in the 
Musculus Rectus Abdominus, that at each of the tendinous interstices, whereby 
its fibres are several times gathered together, a Nerve enters at the beginning of 
each Fusciculus; So here the Muscles of the Proboscis being divided into several 
Fasciculi, each of them have a Branch of this Nerve dispers’d in them; and 
*tis situated on each side, that it may the more conveniently disperse its Branches 
both to the Fasculi of the Blevatores and Retractores alternatively. . . 
‘Thus you see how signally this Member is endued with Instruments for the 
Performance of its different Functions. "Tis the principal Seat of the two 
Senses, and partially partakes of the Third : For by it the Animal smell’d, by it 
Feeling is perform’d, as by the Hands with us, wherefore the Proboscis is not 
improperly call’d Manus Nasura, as before we observ’d; and by it the 5th pair 
of Nerves affords a partial Idea of the Taste, to what Food it takes hold of, 
before it conveys it to the Mouth; and it has a great Analogy to the other two 
Senses, viz., to the Eye by its three pair of Nerves, namely, one for its Seeing, 
analogous to the other for Smelling; one for its pathetical Motions, analogous to 
the acute Sensation, afforded to the other by the fifth pair; and one for the 
motion of its other Muscles, analogous to the hard portion of the other; and to 
1 Tis observable both in Human Subjects and Quadrupeds, that there is an 
Hole- below the Orbit of the Eye in the Os Mazille Superioris, through which 
the Superior Branch of the Second Division of the fifth pair of Nerves passes, 
surrounding in its Progress a Vein and an Artery; all which are dispersed in the ». 
Muscles of the Cheeks, Lips, and Nose, and furnish branches for the Roots of the 
Teeth of the Upper Jaw. This Hole is not so considerable in Human Subjects, 
but larger in Quadrupeds, especially such as feed upon Grass and Hay.’ 
2 Phil. Trans. R.S., vol. 27, 1710-1712, No. 326, p. 51; No. 327, p. 117. 
