On out-lying nerve-cells in the mammalian spinal-cord / by C.S. Sherrington ; communicated by M. Foster.

  • Sherrington, Charles Scott, Sir, 1857-1952.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On out-lying nerve-cells in the mammalian spinal-cord / by C.S. Sherrington ; communicated by M. Foster. 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.

    8/22 (page 38)
    the frontally directed cells in the reticularis may be considered to belong to part of the same system as do they. Besides the smaller nerve cells in the processus reticularis are some much larger, indeed, quite to be reckoned among the large ganglion cells of the cord. These are multipolar, and never, so far as I have seen, of bipolar form. They may measure 50 /x across, but it is tlie size of the cell-processes rather than of the cell-body, which is characteristic. On this account they contrast more strikingly with such cells as compose, for instance, the posterior vesicular column of Clarke, than do even the multipolar cells of the ventral cornu. Lying well out in the reticularis the appearance they offer invites the idea that in them may be provided a nodal junction for the fibres that are there arriving along various planes. But it is difficult to adduce evidence for such a view. Schiefferdecker,* who has furnished what appears to be the only definite reference to the cells of the processus reticularis, considers the cells typical representatives of his “conducting ganglion-cells” (Leiter-zellen) as dis- tinguished from “reflex ganglion-cells” (Reflex-zellen), the latter being such, for instance, as the multipolar cells grouped in the ventral grey horn. He does not advert to the existence of any hu'ge multipolar cells in the reticularis, and although the smaller spindle-shaped and triangular elements would obviously agree with the characters he describes for his “ conducting-cells,” it is not so obvious that he could attach the same meaning to the large-sized multipolar individuals that one not rarely finds. Examples of these a])pear, however, in the reticularis of all regions of the cord. Where the beams of the processus reticularis are thrust backwards towards the dorsal angle of the lateral column, and enclose a finer meshwork than they do more ventrally, ganglion-cells elongated in the direction of the length of tlie beams exist within them. Many are fusiform, and occur near or on bundles of medullated fibres which sweep laterally round the caput cornu dorsalis toward the base of the cornu. In the sacral cord, of the Monkey and Dog at least, nerve-cells are to be found lying considerably distant from tire caput cornu within the dorsal part of the lateral white column, as represented in fig. 5, Plate 4. The arrangement of these tends to show a curvilinear grouping parallel with the outer edge of the lateral limb of the substantia gelatinosa. Those that are within the strands continuous with the processes of the reticularis may, it would seem reasonable to conjecture, be connected with medullated nerve-fibres from the dorsal spinal nerve-roots, which curve round the dorsal horn on its lateral side. The individuals lying further out it is difficult to suggest connections for. Their extension in the transverse j)lane of the cord must, one would think, mean that they communicate mainly with fibres that are taking a horizontal course in the lateral column at their level, but there is no evidence of more than sparsely scattered horizontal fibres in the neighbourhood. * Virchow’s ‘Arcliiv,’ loc. cit.