Page:The Hunterian Oration1843.djvu/4

 This year we have to lament the decease of one whose merits were equally great, but in a different domain of knowledge—of Sir Charles Bell, whose transcendant reputation as a physiologist has, with the mass at least, almost eclipsed his eminent desert as a surgeon.

Sir Charles Bell, though not a pupil, revered the memory of his great predecessor; for if the phrase "damnant quod non intelligunt" aptly describes the judgment of the multitude, it is equally true that it requires high and perhaps kindred talent to estimate genius at its full worth.

Sir Charles Bell was born in 1775, and, after studying some years at the highschool of Edinburgh, began the study of anatomy under his brother John. That brother, twelve years older than himself, was already in high repute both as a surgeon and as a lecturer. The instructions of such a teacher could scarcely have been heard without profit by an ordinary pupil: their effect upon Charles Bell was shown by the publication, in his twenty-second year, of the first volume of his "System of Dissections"—a work marked by his characteristic originality.

At an early age he was appointed Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary; but the feuds which at that time distracted the profession in Edinburgh, as well as other causes, induced him to try his chance in the metropolis of the world, and Mr. Bell came to London in 1806. The rest of his career is well known to you; at any rate, it is unnecessary to dwell on the professorships which he held, or the other marks of public distinction which were heaped upon him. I