31S 
MR. HELL ON THE NERVES OF THE FACE. 
ring to them here, since I am desirous that the Society’s Transactions should 
contain only the philosophical part of the inquiry. 
The system of Willis, of which we have an elegant account in the posthu- 
mous works of Dr. Baillie, prevailed universally in the schools when I entered 
on these inquiries. In opposition to that system I demonstrated that the 
nerves hitherto supposed to possess the same powers, consisted of filaments 
having different roots, and performing different functions. I found myself 
embarked in this investigation, from observing the course which the nerves took 
in their distribution through the body. Conceiving that the devious course 
and reunion of the nerves were for a purpose, I sought in their origins for the 
cause of their seeming irregularity. It was discovered that the roots of the 
nerves arose from distinct columns of nervous matter, and that on these columns 
depended their different properties. Those which were called the common 
nerves, that is, the nerves which arise from the spinal marrow, thirty in number, 
were found to consist each of two nerves derived from distinct columns, one 
for sensation and one for motion. In the further pursuit of this subject, there 
was reason to conclude that the spinal marrow contained not only the columns 
for bestowing sensation and motion, but also another column, the office of 
which was to combine the actions of respiration. I then drew the attention of 
the Society to the course of the fifth nerve of the brain according to Willis. 
I showed that it had the same double root as the spinal nerves, that it had a 
ganglion, and that part of the nerve passed free of the ganglion ; and that from 
all these points of resemblance, it was to be considered as the anterior or 
superior of the spinal nerves, of that system which is called symmetrical, 
and which ministers to the same functions in all classes of animals, bestowing 
sensibility and the locomotive powers, but deficient in those filaments which 
command the respiratory motions. I am particular in restating this, because 
from time to time it has been reported that I had abandoned my original 
opinions ; whereas every thing has tended to confirm them. 
From the general view of the nervous system, I drew attention to the super- 
added or irregular nerves. Having shown that the original or symmetrical 
system of nerves, of which the fifth was one, had no power over the motions 
of respiration, and that the human countenance in all its motions, with the 
exception of mastication, bore relation to the actions of respiration, it was 
