Successful brain grafting / by W. Gilman Thompson.

  • Thompson, W. Gilman (William Gilman), 1856-1927.
Date:
[1890]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Successful brain grafting / by W. Gilman Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ated eccentrically. Between the two kinds of brain tissue a narrow band of connective tissue has formed, which firmly unites the grafted cat’s brain to the dog’s throughout their entire contiguous surfaces. This is most marked at the middle and inner extremity, where it reaches the width of a dozen fibers. Along its line numerous blood vessels have developed, some of which are of considerable size. The transplanted cat’s brain is covered with pia mafer perfectly continuous with that over the (log’s brain. This pia was transplanted together with the cat’s brain. The vessels of the cat’s pia are large and numerous; the pia itself is somewhat thickened. “ The examination of the corresponding portion of the oppo- site hemisphere of the dog’s brain gives the following results : Degenerative changes here are very marked. A portion of the brain tissue and the pia covering it are entirely gone. The cells in the neighborhood are granular and their nuclei do not ap- propriate the stain. A little removed from the point of great- est degeneration the brain shows a reticulated structure from the absence of cells. Here there is extensive diapedesis of the red blood cells. In other parts of the section no red blood cells are to be seen, but the brain cells contain a deposit of brown granules, showing that the red blood cells had broken down with the formation of ka3matoidin. The vessels of this region are enlarged and actively congested. “ At no point am I able to trace any communicating nerve fibers or axis cylinders between the two varieties of brain tissue, although here and there the line of union of connective tissue appears so narrow as to make the two brains almost continuous in structure. While some of the cells of the cat’s brain are completely degenerated, the majority of them are still quite distinct and in some the walls are yet visi- ble. Many of them do not look at all different from any piece of cat brain tissue kept for some weeks in hardening solutions, as this one was.” The features of interest of this experiment are the facts that—