Spinal cord from a case of tetanus following ovariotomy / by Vincent Harris and Alban Doran.

  • Harris, Vincent Dormer, 1851-1931.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spinal cord from a case of tetanus following ovariotomy / by Vincent Harris and Alban Doran. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    2/6 (page 2)
    terior roots throughout the cord; internally the lumbar region appeared, to the naked eye, quite normal. About forty sections of the cord were made by Dr. Harris; Williams’ apparatus was employed for the purpose. They were examined separately by us, together with sections of normal cord, and on comparing notes we have agreed upon the following con- clusions with regard to the appearances observed in these pre- parations. In the lumbar region the sections appear almost normal; the connective tissue and axis cylinders of the white columns show distinctly; the ganglion cells of the grey matter are very perfect and surrounded by a wide space. The central canal is very wide in nearly all the sections, and lined with a distinct layer of columnar epithelium, under which are great numbers of nuclei, extending in some specimens for a considerable distance along the grey commissure. In some examples these nuclei are so abundant as to cause the epithelial lining of the canal to bulge pro- minently into its lumen. Such nuclei are now admitted to be part of the neuroglia, but in healthy cords they are never found in such numbers as in these specimens.1 This great abundance denotes morbid proliferation, especially when the still more evidently ab- normal condition of the cervico-dorsal portion of the grey com- missure comes to be considered. A proliferation is simulated when the razor has detached more epithelial cells than actually belong to the portion of the canal included in the section, the cells being torn from an adjacent part of the canal. The tops of these displaced cells are then seen projecting into the lumen of the canal or pressed backwards against the surrounding tissue, so as to mingle with the neuroglia nuclei, from which they can be so clearly distinguished as to prevent all fallacy ; moreover, in this case they do not lie in the same focus as the nuclei. In some of the sections dilated vessels r can be detected, especially in the anterior columns, close to the median fissure. The sections taken from the lower cervical, and still more those from the upper dorsal region, are more evidently morbid. They all appear more or less unsymmetrical. In none is there any complete breaking down of grey or white matter; several sections exhibit large patches of transparent homogeneous material, which have not become stained ; they are apparently identical with 1 See Klein and Noble Smith, ‘Atlas of Histology,’ plate xix, fig. 3.