Bell, Charles (1774–1842)

Scottish anatomist and surgeon who carried out pioneering research on the human nervous system. He gave his name to Bell's palsy, an extracranial paralysis of the facial nerve, and to the long thoracic nerve of Bell, which supplies a muscle in the chest wall. Knighted 1829.

Bell was born in Edinburgh and became a surgeon at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, having learned from his surgeon brother John Bell (1763–1820). He went to London in 1804, held various academic posts, and returned to Edinburgh in 1836 as professor of surgery.

Bell discovered that nerves are composite structures, each with separate fibres for sensory and motor functions. His findings first appeared in 1811; his main written work was The Nervous System of the Human Body 1830.

Bell, Charles (1870–1945)

English civil servant and traveller. He is remembered as a champion of Tibetan independence and the author of several works on Tibet.

He was present at the Tibet Conference 1913–14 and conducted a diplomatic mission in 1920 to Lhasa, where he stayed for 11 months. In 1934 and 1935 he travelled in Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Siberia, and in 1937 was awarded the Lawrence Memorial Medal by the Royal Central Asian Society. His writings include Tibet: Past and Present (1924), The Religion of Tibet (1941), and Portrait of the Dalai Lama (1946). He was knighted in 1922.