On outlying nerve-cells in the mammalian spinal cord / by Ch. S. Sherrington.

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

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On outlying nerve-cells in the mammalian spinal cord / by Ch. S. Sherrington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    ADDENDUM TO NOTE ON TRACTS DEGENERAT- ING SECONDARILY TO LESIONS OF THE CORTEX CEREBRI. By C. S. SHERRINGTON, M.A., M.B. In a note on tracts degenerating after lesions of the cortex cerebri, in the last number but one of this Journal^ were mentioned degenera- tions occurring in both lateral columns of the spinal cord as a result of injuries to the cord-area of the cortex of one hemisphere only. A diagram was given showing roughly the arrangement of branch tracts springing from the main pyramidal tract, which arrangement appeared to best explain the bilateral degenerations observed. The branch tracts were spoken of as recrossed tracts, in order to avoid periphrasis, as in a previous communication^, and the term was meant to infer that they had crossed the median line again into the half of the cord of the same side as the cerebral lesion. The diagram was intended to repre- sent the pyramidal tracts in the monkey, the animal used in the particular experiments referred to at the time. No branch pyramidal tract was indicated passing from the main tract across the median line in the region of the pons and medulla oblongata. I had not at that time obtained in the monkey any evidence of the existence of a bilateral degeneration in the pyramidal tracts at the base of the brain; although I had seen instances of it in a slight degree in the dog^ and once in slight degree in man^ Since the above note was written, I have, however, obtained the bilateral degeneration at the base of the brain in monkeys. The injuries that occasioned it are small and superficial and situated at the lower end of the Rolandic fissure. The number of fibres degenerating on the two 1 Vol. X. p. 429. 2 This Journal, Vol. vi. p. 177. 2 This Journal, loc. cit. ^ Haddenand Sherrington. Brain, Vol. viii. Jan. 1886.