Internal hydrocephalus in the adult, with remarks on the aetiology of hydrocephalus and its occasional association with other abnormal conditions of the central nervous system / by F. Parkes Weber.

  • Frederick Parkes Weber
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Internal hydrocephalus in the adult, with remarks on the aetiology of hydrocephalus and its occasional association with other abnormal conditions of the central nervous system / by F. Parkes Weber. 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.

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    At the post-mortem examination the cerebral convolutions were found much flattened, and all the ventricles of the brain much distended with clear fluid, which spurted out when the ventricles were punctured, and was evidently under considerable tension. There was no evidence of thrombosis or any disease of vessels. No meningitis or thickening of the membranes discovered; no adhesions of pia-arachnoid to the dura mater ; no disease of the bones of the skull or upper cervical vertebrae. The weight of the brain was excessive (1,588 grammes 1—i.e., 56 ounces—after being some time in formalin), but by macroscopic examina- tion it showed nothing abnormal except an apparent thick- ening of the ependyma, which was most noticeable in the 4th ventricle. The choroid plexuses seemed healthy. The spinal cord was not examined. The stomach was not dilated, and there was no gastric ulcer or pyloric stenosis. Nothing noteworthy was discovered in the liver, kidneys, and the rest of the body. Microscopic examination of the brain.—The upper part of the left ascending frontal convolution, part of the base of the brain, including a portion of the iter a tertio ad quartum ventriculum, part of the floor of the 4th ventricle close to the iter, and part of the medulla oblongata were examined. Sections were stained by the Weigert-Pal, Marchi, and Nissl methods. Sections of the ependyma from one of the lateral ventricles, from the third ventricle, and from different parts of the fourth ventricle were likewise examined, as well as a section of the choroid plexus of one of the lateral ventricles. All these sections were stained with logwood. The central canal of the medulla oblongata was, .as it so often is, filled up with cells. The convolution showed nothing abnormal, unless, as Dr. F. E. Batten thought, slight “spacing of the nerve elements.” The chief change was found in the ependyma of the fourth ventricle. The ependyma was infiltrated with round ceils (fig. 1), and there was marked perivascular cell infiltration in the sub-ependy- 1 This weight is decidedly excessive for a person of the patient’s size, but it must not be considered very extraordinary. The brains of some notable men have weighed much more. Cuvier’s is reported to have weighed almost 1,883 grammes (but see later footnote).
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