Notes on the physiology and pathology of the nervous system, with reference to clinical medicine : A. Disseminated sclerosis of the brain and spinal cord. B. Annular or cortical sclerosis of the spinal cord / by Meredith Clymer, M.D.

  • Clymer, Meredith, 1817-1902.
Date:
1870
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the physiology and pathology of the nervous system, with reference to clinical medicine : A. Disseminated sclerosis of the brain and spinal cord. B. Annular or cortical sclerosis of the spinal cord / by Meredith Clymer, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Biologie, July 30, 1869, Dr. Liouville stated that lie had seen one case where the spinal nerves had sclerotic patches (M^moires, etc. 1. c.) Histological Alterations and Microscopical Appearances in Dif- ferent Stages.—In studying in detail the essential anatomical characters of this lesion, it is necessary to understand the modifications the histological elements imdergo in the succes- sive phases of the morbid processus. The minute anatomy of the nervous system has been accurately studied but quite re- cently, and though there are yet many points under discussion, certain fundamental facts have been generally accepted; these should be borne in mind to intelligently appreciate the exact nature of the tissue-changes in disease. The proper element- ary structure of the nervous centres, consisting of the nerve- fibres or tubes, and ganglion-cells or coi-puscles, lies embedded in, or, more correctly, is bound together by, a kind of con- nective tissue, which Kolliker called reticulum, and Yu'chow neuroglia. It is this connective framework, or gangue, which is specially interested in the lesion under consideration. If a thin section of the cord, hardened in a solution of chromic acid, and colored by carmine, and afterwards made transparent, be examined with a low power, the white mat- ter seems at first to be entii-ely composed of small, regularly- rounded bodies, or disks, placed side by side, and of about the same diameter; these are the cut-nerve tubes; the small red points, looking like minute globules, in the midst of these shining translucent disks, are the colored axis-cylinders. A closer examination shows that these disks are not contiguous, but are really separated by an apparently homogeneous sub- stance, not BO deeply tinted as the axis-cylinders, and which seems to fill up, like a cement, the interspaces between the nerve-tubes. This is the neuroglia or reticulum. In the gray substance this interstitial matter is still more abundant than The connective tissue of tlie cord was fli-st investigated by Keuffel (Reil's Arcliiv, x., 1811). Oruveilbier, iu the article Apoplexie, Diction- naire de M6decine et de Ohirurgie Pratiques, ed. 1820, writes: The ex- tremely delicate serous cellular tissue -which unites and separates the cere- bral fibres, and which forms an excessively fine 'wob