On sclerosis of the spinal cord : including locomotor ataxy, spastic spinal paralysis, and other system-diseases of the spinal cord, their pathology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment / by Julius Althaus.

Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On sclerosis of the spinal cord : including locomotor ataxy, spastic spinal paralysis, and other system-diseases of the spinal cord, their pathology, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment / by Julius Althaus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and Tiirck's anterior or the direct pyramidal column. In these latter strands the disease occurs in a descending direction, while where secondary sclerosis affects the postero-internal or GroU's columns, it takes place in an ascending direction. Clinical observation as well as morbid anatomy seem to point to the conclusion that all these different diseases are very closely allied to each other in character and appear- ances, and differ more particularly according to localisation. It is a fact, which stands out more clearly as our know- ledge advances, that fibres which have certain functions in common are liable to become diseased together at exceed- ingly different levels of the cord, while others in their immediate neighbourhood, which have different functions, are spared. Moreover, such fibres are liable to be affected symmetrically in the two lateral halves of the organ, the degree of the morbid change being often exactly parallel in both sides of the cord. The differences in the physiological function are naturally correlated to evolutional, anatomical, and possibly also to chemical differences in the several parts. Indeed, the cord consists, like the brain, of a number of different areas or systems, each of which, although it may- be histologically identical with others, yet follows a special type of evolution in the fo3tus, has different connections with more peripheral and more central parts, may possibly be chemically quite distinct from its surroundings, and lastly possesses peculiar pathological predispositions or proclivities which are not shared by contiguous parts, however closely connected with them in anatomical position, and however similar in histological elements. An apt illustration of these peculiarities is afforded by the manner in which different poisons act on the different portions of the cord. Bread contaminated with ergot of rye will, when habitually taken for some time, cause well- marked disease of the posterior columns ; while bread containing an admixture of the lathyrus cicera, which is eaten