A contribution to the study of myelitis / by S.G. Webber.

  • Q135585662
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A contribution to the study of myelitis / by S.G. Webber. 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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    were thickened ; this was especially marked by contrast in the nerve-trunks. In the first case, the walls of the vessels in the bundles of fibres of the crural nei've were of normal thickness. In the second case, in tlie sacral plexus the walls of the vessels were much thicker than usual. Is this difference sufficient to warrant the application of a distinctive name ? It seems to me it would be convenient to have such a name for cases wherein the anterior cornua and their cells are so seriously affected, especially as they may be clinically distinguished. That proposed by Frey is satisfactory—Polio- myelitis antefrior—provided it is recognized that the changes are not absolutely confined to that region, but that the white substance also may be invaded. Infantile paralysis and spinal paralysis in the adult have been associated. Clinically there are marked differences. In the former, the origin is more sndden, the paralysis sooner attaining its greatest development, the retrocession of symptoms occurs earlier and is more decided, the subsequent coursie is more uni- versally without relapse, the resulting atropliy and consequent ■deformity more decided, the general health of the patient much better; the disease shows no tendency to extend to other parts after the first onset. The changes after death can hardly be compared, from the fact that there have been few autopsies among adults, and most of those after infantile paralysis have been made late in life. |!i Probably the primary lesion in both is congestion. The va- riation in the symptoms and in the subsequent changes may be explained by the comparatively undeveloped condition and embryonic nature of the infantile spinal cord. There is not time to explain more fully my views in_regard to this difference. As to acute ascending paralysis, the sooner that name is dropped the better ; for it expresses no pathological condition, and only assists in perpetuating the idea that there is no orga- nic^disease in such cases. It is, in truth, a cover for imperfect knowledge, and tends, like all such names, to hinder advance in the study of nervous lesions.
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