BELL, CHARLES. — Born in Edinburgh in 1774, died at Hallow Park on 28 April 1842. He was a great scholar of nervous physiology. Contrary to the opinions of the period and of Haller himself, he demonstrated that there are motor nerve fibres and sensory nerve fibres, and not fibres simultaneously exhibiting these two properties. He was deeply religious, a profound believer, and a finalist.
Together with Lord Broughmann, he edited an edition of Paley’s Natural Theology, or Evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity (London 1802). He wrote part of the Bridgewater Treatises on the power, Wisdom and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation (there 1833–40).
BIBL.: C. L. Kneller, Il cristianesimo e i naturalisti moderni, Brescia 1906, p. 452. Alberto Stefanelli