37 Facts About Charles Bell

Sir Charles Bell was a Scottish surgeon, anatomist, physiologist, neurologist, artist, and philosophical theologian.

Charles Bell is noted for discovering the difference between sensory nerves and motor nerves in the spinal cord.

Charles Bell grew up in Edinburgh, and attended the prestigious High School.

In 1792, Charles Bell enrolled at the University of Edinburgh and began assisting his brother John as a surgical apprentice.

In 1798, Charles Bell graduated from the University of Edinburgh and soon after was admitted to the Edinburgh College of Surgeons where he taught anatomy and operated at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Charles Bell completely wrote and illustrated volumes 3 and 4 in 1803, as well as publishing his own set of illustrations in a System of Dissections in 1798 and 1799.

Furthermore, Charles Bell used his clinical experience and artistic eye to develop the hobby of modelling interesting medical cases in wax.

Charles Bell proceeded to accumulate an extensive collection that he dubbed his Museum of Anatomy, some items of which can still be seen today at Surgeon's Hall.

Charles Bell's stay in Edinburgh did not last long due to an infamous feud between John Bell and two faculty members at the University of Edinburgh: Alexander Monro Secundus and John Gregory.

The Charles Bell brothers were not selected and thus barred from practicing medicine at the Royal Infirmary.

Charles Bell, who was not directly involved in his brother's feuds, attempted to make a deal with the faculty of the University of Edinburgh by offering the university one hundred guineas and his Museum of Anatomy in exchange for allowing him to observe and sketch the operations performed at the Royal Infirmary, but this deal was rejected.

In 1804, Charles Bell left for London and in 1805 had established himself in the city by buying a house on Leicester Street.

From this house Charles Bell taught classes in anatomy and surgery for medical students, doctors, and artists.

In 1809, Charles Bell was among a number of civilian surgeons who volunteered to attend to the many thousands of ill and wounded soldiers who had retreated to Corunna, and 6 years later he again voluntarily attended to the ill and wounded in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo.

Charles Bell transferred his practice from his house to the Windmill Street School Charles Bell ended up teaching students and conducting his own research until 1824.

Charles Bell was instrumental in the creation of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School, and became, in 1824, the first professor of Anatomy and Surgery of the College of Surgeons in London.

Charles Bell was invited to be its first professor of physiology, and helped establish the Medical School at the University of London, gave the inaugural address when it formally opened, and even helped contribute to the requirements of its certification program.

Charles Bell's stay at the Medical School did not last long and he resigned from his chair due to differences of opinion with the academic staff.

Charles Bell was made a Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order in 1833.

Charles Bell died at Hallow Park near Worcester in the Midlands, while travelling from Edinburgh to London, in 1842.

Charles Bell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 8 June 1807, on the nomination of Robert Jameson, William Wright and Thomas Macknight.

Charles Bell served as a Councillor of the RSE from 1836 to 1839.

Charles Bell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London on 16 November 1826, and awarded the Royal Society's gold medal for his numerous discoveries in science.

Charles Bell was knighted into the Guelphic Order of Hanover in 1831.

Charles Bell was a prolific author who combined his anatomical knowledge with his artistic eye to produce a number of highly detailed and beautifully illustrated books.

In 1799, Charles Bell published his first work "A System of Dissections, explaining the Anatomy of the Human Body, the manner of displaying Parts and their Varieties in Disease".

The "Engravings of the Brain" are of particular importance for this marked Charles Bell's first published attempt at fully elucidating the organization of the nervous system.

In 1806, with his eye on a teaching post at the Royal Academy, Charles Bell published his Essays on The Anatomy of Expression in Painting, later re-published as Essays on The Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression in 1824.

Charles Bell published detailed studies of the nervous system in 1811, in his privately circulated book An Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain.

Charles Bell found that an irritation of the anterior columns led to a convulsion of the muscles, while an irritation of the posterior columns had no visible effect.

Charles Bell's experimentation was criticized and the idea that he presented of the anterior and posterior roots being connected to the cerebrum and cerebellum respectively, was rejected.

In 1821, Charles Bell published the "On the Nerves: Giving an Account of some Experiments on Their Structure and Functions, Which Lead to a New Arrangement of the System" in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Charles Bell was one of the first physicians to combine the scientific study of neuroanatomy with clinical practice.

Charles Bell combined his many artistic, scientific, literary and teaching talents in a number of wax preparations and detailed anatomical and surgical illustrations, paintings and engravings in his several books on these subjects, such as in his book Illustrations of the Great Operations of Surgery: Trepan, Hernia, Amputation, Aneurism, and Lithotomy.

Charles Bell wrote the first treatise on notions of anatomy and physiology of facial expression for painters and illustrators, titled Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting.

The book is full of pictures where Charles Bell compares "hands" of different organisms ranging from human hands, chimpanzee paws, and fish feelers.

Charles Bell emphasizes that the hand is as important as the eye in the field of surgery and that it must be trained.