to the surgeon’s knife in some important operation, or kindling with hidden fires, betrayed by the ana- tomy of its expression the emotions that lurked within; the flaccid artery on the table spouted forth its crimson stream, and demanded the arresting hand of the skilful surgeon, or threatened death as the alternative. In short, Sir C. Bell made his pupils think; and, interesting as anatomy is, even if con- sidered as a mere branch of natural history, he taught them to value it most of all as a guide to the art of healing. The time, however, will arrive when all the contemporaries of Sir C. Bell, all in whose ears those impressive tones still linger, shall have been swept from the scene. But his fame will yet sur- vive; he will ever be remembered as the discoverer of the varied functions of the nervous system.
Let me be permitted to make an observation or two on the opinions of physiologists concerning this subject, before and since the publication of Sir Charles Bell’s views.
It 1s well known that each spinal nerve arises by two roots; and it is now generally admitted that to the anterior one belongs the power of controlling motion ; to the posterior one that of governing sen- sation. It had formerly been thought that each spinal nerve possessed in common the power of ruling both motion and sensation, and, in some cases, ad- ditional functions. This may be called the popular theory. Yet glimmerings of the truth had occasion- ally been forced, as it were, upon reflecting physi- ologists. For the ordinary theory was obviously insufhicient to explain why sensation remains in a
