Bell Sir Charles

Bell, Sir Charles, surgeon, was born 1774 in Edinburgh, where he studied anatomy under his brother John (q.v.). In 1804, after being admitted a member of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, he removed to London and made a name as a lecturer on anatomical and surgical subjects. In 1807 he discovered the dual character of the nerves of the brain, sensory and motor. This was published in his Anatomy of the Brain in 1811, and amplified in his Nervous System (1830). Meanwhile (in 1814) he had been appointed surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, in 1824 to the chair of anatomy and surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons, London, and in 1836 to the professorship of surgery in the University of Edinburgh. In 1829 for his scientific discoveries he was awarded the Royal Society's medal and knighted by William IV. in 1831. He also gave special study to gunshot wounds. Besides numerous treatises on the nervous system, he also in conjunction with Lord Brougham edited Paley's Evidences of Natural Religion. He died in 1842 at Worcester.