Charles Bell (anatomist)

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Charles Bell
The Maniac , made by Bell in 1806.

Sir Charles Bell (born November 12, 1774 in Doun in Monteath / Edinburgh , † April 28, 1842 in Hallow Park / Malvern Hills near Worcester ) was a Scottish anatomist and physiologist .

Live and act

Bell was from 1828 professor in London and from 1836 professor and chair of surgery in Edinburgh .

Bell discovered that the peripheral nerves are connected to certain parts of the brain . In 1811 he formulated the thesis that the posterior spinal nerve branches have a sensory function, while the anterior ones only have a motor function. This assumption was confirmed by François Magendie in 1822 . This functional separation of the spinal roots is also known today as the Bell-Magendie law .

In 1829 he was awarded the Royal Medal by the Royal Society , of which he had been a member since 1826 . In his work from 1833, Bell thought about how the upright posture of humans comes about. It describes the awareness of movement and posture, that is, of muscle activity, as the “sixth sense” and “sense of movement and position”.

Other names in medicine are Bell's palsy (paralysis of the facial nerve), the Bell phenomenon (upward rotation of the eyeball while the eyeball is closed, clinically observed in facial nerve palsy because there is no eyelid closure) and Bell's spasm (involuntary twitching the facial muscles).

In 1831 Bell was knighted as Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order (KH). Since 1808 he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh .

Works

  • Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting (1806)
  • New Idea of ​​Anatomy of the Brain (1811) (This work was later called the "Magna Charta of Neurology".)
  • An exposure of the natural system of the nerves of the human body. With a republication of the papers delivered to the Royal Society, on the subject of the nerves. London 1824.
  • The Nervous System of the Human Body (1830)
  • The hand; its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design . Bridgewater Treatises on the power wisdom and goodness of God as manifested in the creation; 4. London: William Pickering, 18. ( The hand; its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design and illustrating the power, wisdom, and goodness of God . / Charles Bell, Sir; Alexander Shaw. 8th London, G. Bell & Sons, 1885.)

literature

Web links

Commons : Charles Bell  album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bell 1833, cit. after Jonathan Cole: A life without proprioception and sense of touch , translated from English by Gisela Weise ( PDF )
personal data
SURNAME Bell, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish anatomist and physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1842
Place of death Hallow Park near Worcester