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
Catalogue details

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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    taining the nerve-tubes; while in longitudinal sections they appear to subdivide and ramify indefinitely, producing the finest meshes, which are interposed between the nerve-tubes. The interspaces between the sheaths and the tubules are filled by a small quantity of finely-granular amorphous matter. We will now briefly examine the histological changes which are met with in those portions of the spinal cord af- fected with disseminated sclerosis. According to Frommann, who had an opportunity to ob- serve the tissue-changes at an early stage of the morbid pro- cessus, and Rindfleisch, the walls of the arterioles and capilla- ries are thickened by a proliferation of small, rounded cells; the cells of the neuroglia are increased in size, and their pro- cesses dilated; the nuclei are large and surrounded by a layer of protoplasm, while their number is increased, one cell con- taining from two to ten nuclei, either in one mass, or each with its own membrane, in which ease each of these nuclei ap- pears as a cell detached from the envelope and contents of the primitive connective corpuscle. In consequence of the progress of the nuclear multiplication, nuclei form in the processes of the connective corpuscles, and these processes grow larger as their anastomoses become more apparent. A little later the anas- tomotic net-work of the connective processes is filled with nuclei, and it is by the abnormal accumulation of these ele- ments that the sites of the original cells are discerned. The sum of these changes may be shortly stated: as an overgrowth of connective nuclei and cells, and the subsequent development of fibrillary elements of great tenuity, which may be seen on the cut surfaces, and behave like elastic tissue. These elements originate probably in the amorphous funda- mental matter of the neuroglia. According to Eindfleisch, the morbid tissue is moistened by a viscous, intercellular liqxiid, slightly eoagulable in water, and containing thp nuclei and small uninuclear cells; by pressure, this liquid is forced out on the surface of a recent section, giving rise to the epen- dymoid formation of Rokitansky. In consequence of the modifications of the reticulum, the nerve-elements are compressed and atrophied ; the tubes lose