On the minute structure and functions of the spinal cord and medulla oblongata and on the proximate cause and retional treatment of epilepsy / Trans by William Daniel Moore.

  • Schroeder Van Der Kolk, Kacob Ludwig Conrad.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the minute structure and functions of the spinal cord and medulla oblongata and on the proximate cause and retional treatment of epilepsy / Trans by William Daniel Moore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    85/356 (page 51)
    wavy appearance, Fig. 8 g g, being very transparent towards the ends, with a dark marbled border. Several bundles, appearing as darker striae,, perforate this horn; its structure therefore differs very much from that of the anterior horn, which has a more uniform tint, and is more or less occupied with ganglionic cells, and the many decus- sating filaments, springing from them.* If we now make a longitudinal section through the posterior horn, we see distinctly that this so-called gelatinous matter consists of minute, transparent, longitudinal fibres, Fig. 9 b b, which, for the most part, run a parallel course, and are very much slighter than the white ascending medullary filaments or sensitive threads. (See Fig. 9 c.) In successful sections we again see running between them the transverse fine bundles of the reflex nerves, Fig. 9 a a a, though of these, on account of their curved or convoluted course, we can usually trace only truncated fragments, always appearing as distinct fasciculi, * The exact course of the sensitive and reflex roots in the spinal cord is certainly one of the most difficult subjects of investigation. Bidder says, that whatever trouble he took, he could not find the ascending fibres of the sensitive nerves which, according to my description, accompany the longi- tudinal medullary fibres upwards, I, c. pp. 84 et seq. This has surprised me, as I have distinctly observed them and drawn them from nature; I am therefore very glad to see my observations confirmed by Stilling. Neue Untersuch., 2 Lief., pp. 285 et seq. Stilling, however, thinks that these ascending nerve filaments again penetrate the grey substance higher up, and that they do not run uninterruptedly to the brain, /. c. p. 284. Since the publication of this Essay, my ideas on this subject have been somewhat modified by the well-known experiments of Brown-Sequard. I have myself seen that sensation decussates in the spinal cord, and not in the medulla oblongata, as I formerly believed; at least, if we cut through the one half of the spinal cord, the foot on the same side continues sensi- tive, and that on the other side becomes insensible, as I observed in a goat. My later investigations on the medulla oblongata have satisfied me, that the sensitive nerves do not themselves decussate, but that in the posterior horns they appear to terminate in ganglionic cells, whence other filaments arise which decussate. See my Essay on the Medulla Oblongata, pp. 27 et seq. [The translation of the Essay alluded to forms the second part of the present volume.] The posterior columns will therefore contain these decus- sated filaments, radiating from the posterior horns and curving upwards, and we thus obtain an explanation of these rays, the nature of which I had considered to be obscure. I freely admit, too, that in this Essay I have been so far in error, that what I took for sensitive nerves, are reflex nerves, which at various heights pass, according to Stilling, again into the grey matter, and that my reflex roots must in fact be regarded as nerves of sensation. E 2