Diseases of the spinal cord.

  • Bramwell, Byrom, Sir, 1847-1931.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the spinal cord. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    77/400 (page 43)
    § 21. The morbid histology of polio-myelitis anterior acuta. —Almost all authorities are at one in thinking that the lesion is inflammatory. Opinions differ as to whether the inflammation commences in the nerve elements or in the connective tissue, but all authorities are agreed that the ultimate effect of the inflammatory process is to cause acute destruction of the multipolar nerve cells. Atrophy of their axis cylinder processes, of the anterior root fibres, and of the muscular fibres to which they are distributed necessarily follows. The disease is rarely fatal; it is seldom, therefore, that an opportunity of observing the condition of the cord in the early stages occurs. In the few cases which have been examined, soon after the onset of the affection, an area of inflammatory softening was found in the lumbar or cervical regions of the cord. Fig. 38. Transverse section of the cervica. region of the Spinal Cord in long standing infantile paralysis. (After Charcot.) The patient, a woman, set. 50, died in the Salpetridre from General Paralysis oj the Insane. The right upper extremity had been affected with Iofantile paralysis. There was fibroid atrophy of the right anterior cornu, and atrophy of the white columns of the corresponding side.