A couple of weeks ago, I found a book for sale in an Oxfam shop by Sir Charles Bell, the early 19th-century anatomist and surgeon whose name still attaches to the condition he first described, Bell’s palsy, the temporary paralysis of a division of the trigeminal nerve.
His books are much sought after, for Bell was a fine draughtsman, and the plates in his books are of great beauty. The book in Oxfam was in fact two short works bound together: Engravings of Arteries (third edition, 1811) and A Dissertation on Gunshot Wounds (first edition, 1814). As with all Bell’s works, the engravings were of fine artistic quality, and they were in excellent condition. The book had an old-fashioned university label and stamp on its inside cover. I asked the bookshop manager whether she was sure the book had not been stolen: she informed me that the bookshop had duly contacted the university’s chief librarian by letter several months before, giving him exact details of the book, but that he had not replied.
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