BELL, Sir CnARLES ( 1774-1342). A Scot tish surgeon, anatomist, and physiologist. well known for his discoveries in connection with the nervous system. Pe was born in Edinburgh, the son of the Rev. William Bell, of the Episco pal Church. While a more youth lie assisted his brother John in his anatomical lectures and demonstratbms. In 1797 he became a mem ber of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, and soon after was appointed one of the surgeons of the Royal Infirmary. In 1804 he proceeded to London, and for some years lectured with great success on anatomy and surgery at the academy in Great Windmill Street. Admitted, in 1812, a member of the Royal College of Sur geons, London, he was elected one of the sur geons of the Middlesex Hospital, in which in stitution he delivered clinical lectures, and raised it to the highest repute. To obtain a knowledge of gunshot wounds, he twice relin quished his London engagements—the first time after the battle of Corunna in 1809, when he visited the wounded landed on the southern coasts of England, and housed in Haslar Hospi tal; the other after the battle of Waterloo, when he repaired to Brussels and was put in charge of a hospital with 300 beds. in 1824 he was appointed senior professor of anatomy and sur gery to the Royal College of Surgeons, Lon don. and subsequently a member of the Council. On the establishment of the London University, now University College, in 1S26, Bell was placed at the head of the department of medicine. He delivered the general opening lectures in his own section, and followed it by a regular course of charaeteristie lectures on physiology, but soon resigned and confined himself to his extensive practice, which was chiefly in nervous affections.
In 1829 he was the recipient of the Royal Society's medal for his discoveries in science. In 1831 he was one of the five eminent men in science knighted on the accession of 'William IV.. the others being Sir John Herschel. Sir
David Brewster, Sir John Leslie, and Sir James Ivory. In 1836 he was elected professor of sur gery in the University of Edinburgh. He was a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edin burgh, and a member of some other learned bodies. Ile was author of various works on surgery and the nervous system, and editor. jointly with Lord Brougham, of Paley's Evidences of Natural Religion. Bell was one of the eight distinguished men selected to write the celebrated Bridgewate-r Treatises, his contribution being on The Hand, Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments, as Evinc ing Design (1834). Among his principal works are: The Anatomy of the Brain Explained in a Series of Engravings (1802) ; A Series of En gravings Explaining the Course of the 1Verves (1804); Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting (1306; posthumous edition, much enlarged, entitled The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression as Connected with the Fine A rts, 1844); A System of Operatiye Surgery (1807 09; 2d ed. 1814) ; Anatomy of the Brain (1811), in which he states his discovery that nerves of sensation are distinct from those of motion; Dissertation on Gunshot Wounds (1814) ; Anato my and Physiology of time Human Body (1816) ; various papers on the nervous system, which originally appeared in the Philosophical Trans actions; Exposition of the Natural System of the Nerves of the Inman Body (1S24) ; Insti tutes of Surgery (1838) ; Animal Mechanics, contributed to the Library for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (1828); Nervous Systemic oi the Human Body (1830). Consult Correspond ence of Sir Charles Bell (London, 1870).