Selected essays and monographs : translations and reprints from various sources.

Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Selected essays and monographs : translations and reprints from various sources. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    tions. But if the actual method of excavation escaped our notice, the fact remains that the glioma undergoes excavation. According to Schultze it is very exceptional for the glioma to be without a cavity. The examinations which we have had the opportunity of making are by no means numerous, and we therefore do not assume an authoritative position. The theory of medullary gliomatosis appears to us to be much the most satisfactory, and it can be applied to a great number of cases. All that we have had occasion to examine belonged to that variety. But it would be advisable not to adopt too exclusive an opinion, and to bear an open mind on] certain theories until further facts enable us to decide regarding them. Besides, according to the new conception of medullary gliomatosis, it is a special affection of neuroglia, and distinct from the ordinary sclerosis, just as connective tissue is distinct from neuroglia; and thus it enables us to give a satisfactory explanation of the various symptoms of syringomyelia. IV. We have so far enumerated the various explanations that have been put forward to account for the lesion. Is it possible now to give a sufficiently clear interpretation of the symptoms from the nature of the lesion ? The early train of symptoms in syringomyelia consists in the dissociation of the different forms of sensation. Our explana- tion of this is still confined to a number of hypotheses ; for the physiology of sensation is not yet fully known, in spite of numerous researches. Experiments upon animals with regard to the sensations of pain and temperature do not give satisfactory results, as one can readily understand. Pathology has therefore to come to the aid of physiology, and through the method now known as “ anatomo-clinique,” has already been the means of making great progress, particularly in the study of the nervous system. We know that in syringomyelia the nerve elements may remain intact for a long time. It is thus intelligible that the disease may remain latent for a considerable period. The seat of election of the new growth is the cervical enlargement, so that muscular atrophy and alterations in sensation will most frequently make their appearance in the upper extremities.