Retrograde degeneration in the spinal nerves.

  • Ranson, Stephen Walter, 1880-1942.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Retrograde degeneration in the spinal nerves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    an atrophy of the ganglion as a whole and of the nerve fibers con- tained in it. There seemed to be some atrophy of the ganglion cells but of this Homen could not be sure. He did not consider the possibility of a decrease in the number of cells. Cassirer ('98) states that a few cells in all probability undergo complete destruction. He says that the question of the loss of spinal gan- glion cells can only be settled by resorting to an enumeration. Thus we see that in only four of the investigations were the spinal ganglia studied and even in these cases no important observations were made. Some additional data have been furnished by various investiga- tions based on Nissl's axonal reaction. After cutting the sciatic nerve near its exit from the pelvis in a number of dogs, Lugaro ('96), found that not all the cells of the spinal ganglion showed an equal degree of chromatolysis, a fact which he attributed to varia- tions in the resistance of the individual cells. Thirty-nine days after the operation, there was a manifest diminution in the number of cells and an abundant proliferation of connective tissue. Fleming ('97), who performed a similar operation on dogs and rabbits, found a decrease in size of the spinal ganglion cells soon after the operation. Cell destruction is, however, slow in making its appearance; in only one case is disintegration of the proto- plasm noted at six weeks; after 18 weeks, however, many cells have disappeared. Van Gehuchten ('97), aftercuttingthe vagus in rabbits, observed that the majority of the nerve cells in the gan- glion nodosum underwent complete degeneration and disappeared. He believes that these results may be considered typical for the spinal as well as for the cerebral ganglia. On the other hand, Marinesco ('98), after a similar operation on the vagus of dogs, found that the cells in the ganglion nodosum passed through the phase of reaction to a phase of restoration, and, therefore, did not undergo complete degeneration. In a rabbit six months after the operation he could not find the cell destruction of which van Gehuchten speaks. Marinesco also regards the reaction of the vagus as typical for all the cerebro-spinal ganglia. Van Gehuchten's observation has recently received support from the observations of Kosaka and Yogita ('05), who found, fourteen days after the section of the vagus in a young dog, an almost complete disappearance of the cells of the ganglion nodosum; of the thousands of cells only sixty-five remained.