SIR CHARLES BELL 



61 



on function till the very last secrets had been got 

 out of structure. He died a few years afterward. 

 The 1830 writings are his last stand for the 

 defence of his country, his school, and his beloved 

 anatomy, against the methods of Magendie ; who 

 said of himself, " I am a mere street scavenger, 

 chiffonier, of science. With my hook in my hand 

 and my basket on my back, I go about the streets 

 of science, collecting what I find." 



This open conflict between Bell's first and 

 last thoughts is a part of his character : he 

 was brilliant, impulsive, changeable, inconsistent ; 

 and, what is more important, his honour kept him 

 from trying to evade this trumpery charge of incon- 

 sistency ; and he reprinted the 181 1 Preface in the 

 book that he published in 1830. Doubtless he would 

 have picked his words more carefully if he had 

 foreseen that one of the 1830 sentences would be 

 wrested out of its place in his life's work, and used 

 as false evidence against the very method that he 

 followed. 



His observations on the cranial nerves brought 

 about an immediate change in the practice of 

 surgery : — 



" Up to the time that Sir Charles Bell made 

 his experiments on the nerves of the face, it was 

 the common custom of surgeons to divide the facial 

 nerve for the relief of neuralgia, tic douleureux ; 

 whereas it exercises, and was proved by Sir Charles 

 Bell to exercise, no influence over sensation, and 

 its division consequently for the relief of pain was a 

 useless operation." (Sir J. Erichsen.) 



