400 Mr. Bell’s experiments on the structure 
course of his duty, to go minutely over the demonstration of 
the nerves, year after year, without allowing himself to resign 
the subject merely on account of its intricacy, and finding the 
facts which he had to explain in his demonstrations of the 
anatomy, quite inconsistent with the received opinions, he 
gradually, after much study, was enabled to decypher and to 
read that language, of which the character had hitherto been 
imperfectly known ; and now even the youngest students are 
brought to comprehend so much of the subject, that the idea 
of chance, or accident, or real confusion among these nu- 
merous branches, is entirely dismissed ; and what remains 
unexplained has, by the success of our past enquiries, become 
a subject of peculiar interest, from the conviction, that attention 
to the minute anatomy, under the guidance of cautious and 
fair induction, will sooner or later lead to a comprehension 
of the whole system. 
Statement of the object of the paper. 
The Author means to limit his present enquiry to the nerves 
of respiration. But according to his conception of this matter, 
these nerves form a system of great extent, comprehending 
all the nerves which serve to combine the muscles employed in the 
act of breathing and speaking. 
The first point of enquiry naturally is, how many of the 
muscles are combined in the act of respiration ? and the 
second question, by what means are these muscles, which are 
seated apart from each other, and many of them capable of 
performing distinct offices, combined together in respiration ? 
It may sound oddly to speak of the respiratory nerve of the 
face, of the neck, and of the shoulder ; and it may be neces- 
