Bell, SIR CHARLES

Bell, SIR CHARLES, an eminent surgeon, whose discoveries in the nervous system have given him a European fame, was born at Edinburgh in 1774, the youngest of five sons of William Bell, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. Three of his brothers became professors, the eldest, Robert, filling the chair of Conveyancing in Edinburgh from 1800 to 1816; John and George Joseph are separately treated. While a mere youth, Charles assisted his brother John in his anatomical lectures and demonstrations. In 1799 he was admitted a member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons; in 1804 he proceeded to London, where for some years he lectured with great success on anatomy and surgery at the academy in Great Windmill Street. In 1807 he made the discovery, which he established by the publication of his Anatomy of the Brain (1811), of the existence of sensory and motor nerves in the brain; his investigations were completed between 1821-29, and included researches on the cranial nerves, which are embodied in his Nervous System (1830). These discoveries in physiology have been described as the greatest since Harvey demonstrated the circulation of the blood. Appointed in 1812 surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, a few years later he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London; in the former institution he delivered clinical lectures, and raised it to the highest repute. To obtain a knowledge of gunshot wounds, he twice relinquished his London engagements—first after the battle of Corunna in 1809, when he visited Haslar Hospital; next after Waterloo, when he repaired to Brussels, and was put in charge of a hospital. In 1824 he was appointed senior professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and subsequently a member of the council. On the establishment of the London University, now University College, in 1826, Bell was placed at the head of their new medical school, but soon resigned, and confined himself to his extensive practice, which was chiefly in nervous affections. In 1829 he received the Royal Society's medal for discoveries in science. In 1831 he was knighted on the accession of William IV. In 1836 he was elected professor of Surgery in the university of Edinburgh. He was a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, and a member of some other learned bodies. He was editor, jointly with Lord Brougham, of Paley's Evidences of Natural Religion. He died suddenly, 28th April 1842, at Hallow Park, Worcester, where he was staying, and was buried in the churchyard there. Of a cheerful disposition, Bell enjoyed literature and music; fishing was a favourite recreation with him. Among his principal works on surgery and the nervous system are: Anatomy of the Brain, 12 plates (1802); Engravings, explaining the Course of the Nerves (1804); Anatomy of Expression in Painting (1806; posthumous edition, enlarged, 1844); A System of Operative Surgery (2 vols. 1807-9); Gunshot Wounds (1814); Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body (3 vols. 1816); various papers on the nervous system, which originally appeared in the Philosophical Transactions; Nerves of the Human Body (1824); Injuries of the Spine and of the Thigh Bone (1824); Institutes of Surgery (1838); Animal Mechanics, contributed to the Library for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1828); Nervous System of the Human Body (1830, 4to); Practical Essays (1841). The Hand (1833) is one of the celebrated Bridgewater Treatises. See Pichot's Vie et Travaux de Sir Charles Bell (1859), and his Correspondence (1870).