Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / By John Abercrombie.

  • Abercrombie, John, 1780-1844
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological and practical researches on diseases of the brain and the spinal cord / By John Abercrombie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    350/488 (page 326)
    PART IV. OF THE DISEASES OF THE SPINAL CORD AND ITS MEMBRANES. In its structure, the spinal cord is very analogous to the brain, except that it is more dense in its consistence. The membranes of the cord are usually divided into three, the dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater ; but as that which has been termed the arachnoid seems rather to be a kind of loose cellular texture, scarcely deserving a distinct name, it will answer every practical purpose to consider the membranes as two. {. The dura mater of the cord does not differ in structure from that of the brain, except in varying con- siderably in thickness at different parts. The principal facts to be kept in mind in a practical point of view are, that it adheres very slightly to the canal of the vertebree by a very loose cellular texture, and that it adheres very intimately to the margin of the foramen magnum. In this manner a cavity is produced betwixt the membrane and the canal of the spine, which may be the seat of effusion, and which has no communication with the cavity of the cranium; on the other hand, the space betwixt the dura mater and the pia mater, or the imme- diate covering of the cord, communicates freely with the cavity of the cranium, so that a fluid may pass easily