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THE HUNTERIAN ORATION. 
large plans of the three great classes of nerves, under which he 
arranged those of the human body. 
“Two years afterwards, in 1821, a general account of the re- 
sults of his observations was communicated to the Royal Society, 
in a paper read before that body, and apparently intended as an 
introduction to others which were to follow, and did follow. 
“ Notwithstanding the novel and important matter it contained, 
the ‘ Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain’ had failed to attract 
attention. Not so the first paper in the Philosophical Transac- 
tions. Bell’s views and opinions were now questioned — doubted 
— denied : then a certain amount of truth allowed to them ; and, 
ultimately, the real and substantial credit of a patient, laborious, 
and original inquiry was attempted to be wrested from him, and 
attributed to others, whose single merit, in this part at least of 
physiology, consisted in their adoption of that key which Bell had 
invented, fashioned, and shewn how to use — a key, without which 
the secrets of the nervous system, so far as they are now known, 
had probably yet remained concealed. 
“ In estimating Bell’s claims as a physiologist, we are not 
called upon to regard his papers and memoirs on the nervous 
system as complete and perfect. Along with all that is distinct 
and precise, we may allow that there are some allegations not 
quite specific — allegations which a mind more severely disciplined 
might not have hazarded. We may grant that the functions 
of the posterior roots of the spinal nerves were therein suggested 
rather than positively stated. We may acknowledge, as he him- 
self did acknowledge, that he misinterpreted an experiment in his 
first attempt at proving that which he afterwards did prove 
through Mr. John Shaw, that the fifth nerve is a nerve of motion 
as well as sensation. And we may agree in receiving with doubt, 
or at least without conviction, as not yet proved, his views with 
respect to certain nerves being superadded in the higher class of 
animals, for the purposes of respiration. 
“ But, after all these acknowledgments, there remains to Bell, 
clearly and unequivocally, the merit of having first shewn — 
“ That, in investigating the functions of the nervous system, we 
must direct out attention to the roots and not to the trunks of 
the nerves. 
“ That the nervous trunks conveying motion and sensation 
consist of two distinct sets of filaments in the same sheath. 
“That the filaments for motion form a distinct root from those 
for sensation, and that the anterior roots are for motion ; leaving 
it to be inferred that the posterior are for sensation. 
“That the portio dura is a nerve of motion, and the fifth a 
nerve both of motion and sensation. 
