Sir Charles BellDied 28 Apr 1842 (born Nov 1774). Scottish anatomist and surgeon whose New Idea of Anatomy of the Brain (1811) has been called the "Magna Carta of neurology." After further research on the anatomy of the brain he published an expanded version, entitled The Nervous System of the Human Body (1830). In these books Bell distinguished between sensory nerves that conduct impulses to the central nervous system and motor nerves that convey impulses from the brain or from other nerve centres to a peripheral organ of response. He announced that the anterior roots of the spinal nerves are motor in function, while the posterior roots are sensory. This observation was confirmed eleven years later and more fully elaborated by François Magendie. |
