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XXVIII.—Biographical Notice of the late Sir Charles Bell, K.H.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2013

John M'Neill
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Extract

The pleasure which honourable and enlightened minds must feel in acknowledging their obligation to the individuals who have advanced useful knowledge in any department of science,—who have contributed to the means of promoting human happiness, or of alleviating human suffering, has, in all times, led men to seek an opportunity of recording their sentiments of admiration and of gratitude towards the distinguished instructors of mankind. They have felt, too, that the time when one of these guiding lights has been quenched, when a contributor to the treasury of knowledge has just terminated his labours, is peculiarly fitted for the discharge of this duty. The whole amount of his contributions is then presumed to be before them, and they are restrained by no fear of offending his delicacy by their praise, or of having their own feelings hurt by a misconstruction of their motives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , 1844 , pp. 397 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1844

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References

page 399 note * Arnot's Hunterian Oration, 1843.

page 401 note * Another general fact, which seems to be well ascertained, may be referred to the operation of the same principle, and, in this respect, has also some analogy to the great discovery of Sir Charles Bell in regard to the nerves, viz., that different portions of the small arteries, which are similar in size, structure, and degree of subdivision, have nevertheless very different relations to the blood which they carry, and suffer very different portions of that blood to transude through their coats, so as to maintain the functions of secretion and nutrition; thus affording another instance of the natural subdivision of labour.

page 403 note * “On pourrait penser d'apres cela qu'au fond toutes les parties du systême nerveux sont homogènes et susceptibles d'un certain nombre de fonctions semblables, à peu près comme les fragmens d'un grand aimant que l'on brise deviennent chacun un aimant plus petit, qui a ses pôles et son courant; et que ce sont des circonstances accessoires seulement, et la complication des fonctions que ces parties ont à remplir dans les animaux tres élevés, qui rendent leur concours nécessaire, et qui font que chacune d'elles a une destination particulière.— Il paroit, en effet, quant à ce dernier point, que si certains nerfs ne nous procurent que des sensations déterminées, et que si d'autres ne remplissent également que des fonctions particulières, cela est dû à la nature des organes exterieurs dans lesquels les premiérs se terminent, et à la quantité de vaisseaux sanguins que reçoivent les autres, à leurs divisions, à leurs reunions, en un mot, à toute sorte de circonstances accessoires, plutôt qu'à leur nature intime.”—Leçons d' Anatomie Comparée de Cuvier, tom. ii., p. 95.