An anatomico-physiological study of the posterior longitudinal bundle in its relation to forced movements / by L.J.J. Muskens.

  • Muskens, Louis Jacob Josef, 1872-1937.
Date:
1914
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: An anatomico-physiological study of the posterior longitudinal bundle in its relation to forced movements / by L.J.J. Muskens. 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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    description, and with the findings of Ferrier and Turner, Risien Russell, Thomas, and others. A descending degeneration in the fibres of the posterior longitudinal bundle also is found on the side of the lesion in any case (particularly after lesion of Deiters’ nucleus in the narrower sense). The situation of this homolateral, vestibulo-spinal bundle in the spinal cord is more dorsal and lateral than that of the corresponding crossed bundle. In the region of the cord its fibres intermingle with those of the direct dorsal vestibulo-spinal bundle just described, and which in these cases is also degenerated. This intermingling of the two homolateral descending bundles, their mutual origin from Deiters’ nucleus in the narrower sense, and the fact that everywhere in the medulla oblongata degenerated fibres are found, which occupy the intervening space between their two areas, lead us to suppose that these two bundles are identical, both genetically and functionally. As regards these homolateral vestibulo-posterior longitudinal bundle- fibres of Probst, van Gehuchten, and others, I would agree with Thomas and van Gehuchten, that in lesions in the region of Deiters’ nucleus one is constantly struck by the great and apparently fundamental differences in the descending degenerations found.1 This may be due to the peculiar shape the lesion takes, but it may also be due to the circumstance that Deiters’ nucleus, as Kohnstamm has mentioned, is composed of cells of various sizes, which possibly do not all suffer in the like degree from a lesion in this region. Some- thing similar is found in regard to the different bundles of the posterior longitudinal bundle formation, which do not suffer equally when the posterior longitudinal bundle passes through a softened area, for some of the fascicule degenerate, and others remain intact [108]. In the same way differences appear to occur in different species in the relative position of the descending bundles, which has led even van Gehuchten to suppose that in the rabbit the homolateral descending vestibular fibres in the posterior longitudinal bundle are missing. The situation of the homolateral descending Deiters fibres m the spinal region of the longitudinal bundle is about the same as that of the descending homolateral degeneration, after incision of one posterior 1 To give a typical example, I would refer to cat No. 7, of Lewaudowskv. From the character and situation of the ascending degenerations (both exclusively on the same side as the lesion cf. § 5 of this Chapter) in the posterior longitudinal' bundle formation there seems to be no doubt that Bechterew’s nucleus is affected. Nevertheless one still finds in this case of limited lesion of the oral part of the vestibular region the direct vestibulo-spinal bundle considerably degenerated.
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