“…At last their voluntary action returned by degrees and after electricity had been used for a month, volition had regained its full energy, and the face its natural appearance. (Friedreich, 1798, as cited by Bird, 1979Pearce, 1999) The report in 1704 of James Douglas F. R. S. (1675-1742), a Scottish anatomist and Physician Extraordinary to Queen Caroline (Shelley, 2013) and the Dutch physician, Cornelis Stalpart van der Wiel also preceded Bell (van de Graaf and Nicolai, 2005). In 1804/1805 Evert Jan Thomassen à Thuessink (1762-1832) published an extensive study on idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis (Thomassen à Thuessink, 1804) that he related to trigeminal neuralgia and attributed to rheumatism.…”