This same inconsistency of sentences occurs elsewhere in his Nervous System of the Human Body. In one place he says that he has made few experiments: They have been simple, and easily performed, and I hope are decisive. In another he says: "After making several experiments on the cerebrum and cerebellum, I laid the question of their functions entirely aside, and confined myself to the investigation of the spinal marrow and the nerves; a subject which I found more within my power, and which forms the substance of the present volume."
Next, take his account of the cranial nerves:—
"It was necessary to know, in the first place, whether the phenomena exhibited on injuring the separate roots corresponded with what was suggested by their anatomy....
"Here a difficulty arose. An opinion prevailed that ganglions were intended to cut off sensation; and every one of these nerves, which I supposed were the instruments of sensation, have ganglions on their roots. Some very decided experiment was necessary to overturn this dogma. (Account of the experiment.) By pursuing the inquiry, it was found that a ganglionic nerve is the sole organ of sensation in the head and face: ganglions were therefore no hindrance to sensation; and thus my opinion was confirmed.... It now became obvious why the third, sixth, and ninth nerves of the encephalon were single nerves in their roots....
"Observing that there was a portion of the fifth nerve which did not enter the ganglion of that nerve, and being assured of the fact by the concurring testimony of anatomists, I conceived that the fifth nerve was in fact the uppermost nerve of the spine.... This opinion was confirmed by experiment.... (Account of an experiment on the dead body.) On dividing the root of the nerve in a living animal, the jaw fell relaxed. Thus its functions are no longer matter of doubt: it is at once a muscular nerve and a nerve of sensibility. And thus the opinion is confirmed, that the fifth nerve is to the head what the spinal nerves are to the other parts of the body, in respect to sensation and volition."
The value of the experimental method could hardly be stated in more emphatic words. He supposed something, conceived it, had an opinion about it. Anatomy had suggested something to him. He put his opinion to the test of phenomena, that is to say, to the test of visible facts; and then his opinion was confirmed. As with the spinal nerve-roots, so with the fifth cranial nerve—his work was successful, because he followed the way of experiment.
He was by nature of a most complex and sensitive temperament, full of contrary forces—one man in 1811, another in 1830. In 1811 he wrote, I now saw the meaning of the double connection of the nerves; in 1830 he had come to hate the stupid sterile materialism of the French school: he beheld anatomy falling behind physiology, and his Windmill Street school perishing to make way for the Hospital schools and for the University of London. He was before everything else a great anatomist: he stood up for the honour of anatomy against the new physiology, and for the honour of the Monroes and the Hunters against Magendie: he hated the notion that any man should proceed to experiments on function till the very last secrets had been got out of structure. He died a few years afterward. The 1830 writings are his last stand for the defence of his country, his school, and his beloved anatomy, against the methods of Magendie; who said of himself, "I am a mere street scavenger, chiffonier, of science. With my hook in my hand and my basket on my back, I go about the streets of science, collecting what I find."
This open conflict between Bell's first and last thoughts is a part of his character: he was brilliant, impulsive, changeable, inconsistent; and, what is more important, his honour kept him from trying to evade this trumpery charge of inconsistency; and he reprinted the 1811 Preface in the book that he published in 1830. Doubtless he would have picked his words more carefully if he had foreseen that one of the 1830 sentences would be wrested out of its place in his life's work, and used as false evidence against the very method that he followed.
His observations on the cranial nerves brought about an immediate change in the practice of surgery:—
"Up to the time that Sir Charles Bell made his experiments on the nerves of the face, it was the common custom of surgeons to divide the facial nerve for the relief of neuralgia, tic douleureux; whereas it exercises, and was proved by Sir Charles Bell to exercise, no influence over sensation, and its division consequently for the relief of pain was a useless operation." (Sir J. Erichsen.)