On the degeneration of the neurone / [Sir F.W. Mott].

  • Mott, F. W. (Frederick Walker), 1853-1926
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the degeneration of the neurone / [Sir F.W. Mott]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE CROONIAN LECTURES ON THE units in contiguity but not in continuity. There is interlacing of the processes, but no nerve network. The Network op Gerlach. In 1871 Gerlach,2 by the gold method of staining, showed an intricate network in the grey matter ; he came to the conclusion that the protoplasmic processes of the nerve-cells were all con- nected in a delicate network, and that out of this network strands of fibrils joined together to form fibres which passed out of the posterior roots and became sensory nerve-fibres. For fifteen years this theory was accepted ; then Forel3 and His,4 by their studies respectively of degeneration and of the development of the nervous system in the embryo, completely overthrew the doctrine of Gerlach. Forel pointed out the limitation of secondary degeneration ; and by the Gudden atrophy method showed that degeneration or atrophy did not pass beyond a cell station when the fibres which arise from those cells are cut through ; and he claimed that the nervous system consisted of independent cellular units. Forel also called attention to the remarkable work of Golgi,5 and although he opposed the diffuse nerve network theory put forward by that authority, yet he recog- nised the great value of the researches made by his new chrome silver method. About this time Professor His published his researches upon the development of the nervous system, and he showed that the axis cylinder and the other processes of the nerve-cell were outgrowths of the cell protoplasm, and the apparent nervous network was really only an interlacing of innumerable cell processes. The chrome silver method of Golgi was later adopted by Ramon y Cajal,6 Retzius,7 Kolliker,8 Lenhossek,9 Van Gehuchten,10 2 Strieker’s “ Handbook of Histology,” Spinal Cord. 3 Einige hirnanatomische Betrciclitungen unci Ergebnissc, Archiv fiir Psychiatrie und NervenhranJcheiten, Berlin, 1887, Band xviii. 4 “ The Nervous System” (L. Barker). 5 Sulla Struttura della Sostanzagrigia del Cervello, Gazzctla Medica Italiana Lombardia, 1873, tomo vi. 6 Croonian Lectures, Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1894. Tide Barker’s “ Nervous System ” for later publications. 7 Vide Barker : “ The Nervous System.” 8 Handbuch cler Geweblehre des Menschen, 1896. 9 Neurologisches Centralblatt, 1899, No. 3. 10 Anatomic du Systeme Nerveux.