Essays on the anatomy and philosophy of expression / By Charles Bell.

  • Charles Bell
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Essays on the anatomy and philosophy of expression / By Charles Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and by a succession of so many eminent men, every thing must have been disclosed. Those who hold this opinion cannot be aware that every discovery in science opens a new field of inquiry, and that this is especially true of anatomy. No part of knowledge stands so much connected with the other departments, and is so universally dependent on discoveries in other sciences, as anatomy; if we understand by that term the knowledge of the functions as well as the structure of animal bodies. I have regretted the influence of this opinion on our students, because it takes from them that animation and pleasure which belong to their time of life, and their peculiar studies, which, if followed as they ought to be, afford an ever new hope and prospect of discovery. Nor ought the study of animal structure to be limited to that only which appears useful; but, on the contrary, extended in a liberal manner to all the ramifications which promise to improve our general knowledge. We never know to what useful conclusion the inquiry may lead, while it is sure to gratify us, to give rise to admiration, and a sort of involuntary praise. At one time I thought an apology was necessary for paying attention to expression, a sub- ject of mere amusement, when I might have been more usefully employed; and now, if I shall have any reputation as a discoverer, 1 shall owe it principally to the views which this neglected subject has suggested to me. Here I first learned to look upon the fabric