Redefining a discovery: Charles Bell, the respiratory nervous system and the birth of the emotions

Abstract

Charles Bell was famous for the discovery of the separate motor and sensory roots of the spinal and facial nerves, although in recent years his right to priority has been challenged by historians and scientists. But Charles Bell did discover something even if has not been accorded the status of a scientific fact. Between 1821 and 1823 he unveiled the ‘respiratory nervous system’, a distinct system of nerves that acted as the ‘organ of the passions’, which he then elaborated upon in his 1824 Essays on the Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression. As Bell and his allies attempted to claim priority in the spinal and facial nerves, the respiratory nerves were pushed to the background, subordinated to the motor and sensory nerves. This essay, therefore, redefines Charles Bell's major discovery as the ‘respiratory nerves’, providing a detailed description of their anatomy and physiology and the way in which they underwrote Bell's theory of the emotions. It also demonstrates how his aesthetics were intertwined with his research programme. It then connects the respiratory nerves to Thomas Dixon's assertion that Bell was one of the founders of the modern psychological category of the emotions, providing a deeper and more nuanced genealogy of the emotions, including the impact that Bell had upon William James's seminal article ‘What is an Emotion?’