Abstract from notes on the minute structure of the spinal cord / by John B. Trask.

  • John Boardman Trask
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Abstract from notes on the minute structure of the spinal cord / by John B. Trask. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    [11] divided toward the pei-iphery ; these corpuscles are all centrically nucleated. Occasionally there is to be seen a corpuscle in this group more or less trian- gular, which may arise from being cut obliquely; but all the cells of this group have the caudal prolongations much more distinctly marked than any cells found in the anterior cornua. These cells differ from those of the cornua for the reasons given above, and the following: they are not met with in transverse section ; they are situate in the white substance of the anterior columns ; they are found only in vertical sections, when the plane of that section is antero-posterior; when the plane of the vertical section is lateral, I have never succeeded in detecting them. Their planes, therefore, are antero-posterior, and their polar axis vertical to the cornual cells, and parallel with the vertical axis of the cord. From what knowledge we now possess as to the peculiar functions to which the different cellules give origin, there is but little doubt that these corpuscles belong to the efferent system, both from their form and position ; but over what particular motor functions they preside, is not so clear from any researches at present made. From the dissimilarity of these cor- puscles (in the particulars named) to those of the efferent system, as found in the anterior cornua, it would not seem hazardous to suppose that they may give origin to motor nerves of somewhat special function, as to the nerves of purely involuntary motion. Taking into consideration the relations of these cells as given above, is there not a probability that they may give origin to the respiratory system of Sir Charles Bell, who placed the nerves governing this in the anterior columns; and has not his division of the functions of the columns in this particular, more foundation in fact than is awarded to it even by his own countrymen at the present day ? The general statement, to the effect that the caudate cellules occur alilve in the commissures and the gray matter of the anterior cornua, I thus far have no; been able to verify, although I have searched for them most sedu- lously in the former region. If they have been seen in situ by any observer in either of the commissures, I would be glad to know who he is; there are none that I can find who vouch for the fact as stated. It appears to me that this statement has crawled into general use upon a presumption of their presence in this locaHty in the first instance, based probably upon hypothet- ical grounds, on account of those cellules being found in such close proximity in the anterior comua; probably it now obtains credence by that peculiar process of coacervation which pertains to compilers. I have carefully sought Mibse cells, in very many instances, in the gray commissure, (where they would be most likely to be found if they exist there;) that is to say, in the gray substance extending between and uniting the cornua on both sides; the boundaries of the commissure I include be- tween the central antero-posterior lines of the anterior cornua. In no instance have these cellules been met with by me centric to the bloodvessels which surround the central canal. A few cells having an elongated oval form may at times be seen within the latter points; but to designate them as caudate cells, we must leave fact and draw more strongly on the imagination.
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