Does anyone have a deeper knowledge of the history of British doctor-writers than our favorite British doctor-writer? Dalrymple’s weekly BMJ columns are brief outlines of the lives and work of his intellectual predecessors, many of them quite obscure. As such, these columns perhaps illustrate an abiding respect for an ancient and inconvenient moral: “Know Thyself”. His latest column discusses “Sir Charles Bell (1774-1844), of Bell’s palsy, Bell’s nerve, and the Bell-Magendie Law”. Subscription required.