On the connections of the inferior olivary body / by Alexander Bruce.

  • Bruce, Alexander, 1854-1911.
Date:
[1889?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the connections of the inferior olivary body / by Alexander Bruce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    fact (as well as from its large size) expect that it should possess an extensive system of fibres connecting it with other parts of the central nervous system, more especially with such parts as have a similar function; but it is a striking illustration of the difficulty of the histological investigation of this region, that until quite recently only one of these connecting systems had been definitely established. It has long been known that when one half of the cerebellum is congenitally defective, the restiform body of the same side, and the inferior olive of the opposite side, are also absent, the development of the olive being evidently dependent on the opposite hemisphere of the cerebellum. With regard to the other relations of the olive, opinions have been very divergent. The most generally accepted view is that of Deiters, viz., that the olive is a nodal point or ganglion of interruption, between the pos- terior columns of the spinal cord (or their nuclei) of one side and the restiform body of the opposite side. Deiters thought that the in- ternal arcuate fibres which originate in the nuclei of the posterior columns (^'.e., the clavate nucleus, or nucleus of the column of Gall^ and the cuneate nucleus, or nucleus of the column of Burdach) terminate on the convex surface of the olive of the same side; while other fibres, arising from the interior of the same olive, leave it at its hilum, and after crossing the raphe, and then passing partly anterior, partly through and partly posterior to the opposite olive, enter the restiform body. Deiters considered that the fact that the restiform Gurvature of the body, were produced, (d) There was generally, also, a tend- ency to fall towards the injured side, or in lesions of both olives unsteadiness of gait, or actual inability to stand or walk. In estimating the results of these experiments, it must be remembered that it is impossible to divide the olivary bodies without at the same time injuring some of the following structures, viz., the direct cerebellar tract, the arciform fibres of Solly (or the anterior external arcuate fibres of Edinger), the ascend- ing tract of Gowers, or those fibi es which pass from the lateral columns of the spinal cord to the superior olive, and the posterior corpus quadrigeminum. The lesions produced in these various strands may therefore be, at least in part, responsible for the phenomena attributed to the section of the olivary bodies. Ferrier concludes {^Functions of the Brain^ 2nd edit,, p. 207) that the views of Deiters and Meynert, with regard to the connection of the olive and the posterior columns, are established by Bechterew's experiments. In view of the possible fallacies in these experiments, and the certain results of embry- ological investigations, that connection can no longer, in my opinion, be maintained.