A compendium of human & comparative pathological anatomy / by Adolph Wilhelm Otto ; tr. from the German, with additional notes and references by John F. South.

  • Otto, Adolph Wilhelm, 1786-1845.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A compendium of human & comparative pathological anatomy / by Adolph Wilhelm Otto ; tr. from the German, with additional notes and references by John F. South. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    is very often connected with morbid softening, colouring, and structure, and seems to originate oftentimes in the total absence or great imperfection of the organ to which the nerves belong.^ In hemicephaly, hydrencephalocele, and internal dropsy of the head, the cerebral nerves, so long as they remain within the cavity of the skull, are very thin, as are the spinal nerves in sjnna bifida at the diseased spot. More frequent is the ACQUIRED and later occurring diminution, or atrophy of the nerves, which but rarely, and only in a slight degree, parti- cipates in the general consumption of the body,^ and appears to stand in an equally imperfect relation to paralysis ;^ the organs of sense, however, seem to form an exception, as they waste, shorten, lengthen, &c., both as cause and consequence of diseases of the organs of sense;* this has been observed most commonly and most completely in the optic nerves, of which sometimes only the part in front of the chiasma, often also the cerebral part of the nerve on the opposite or upon the same side, or lastly, on both sides, with or without optic beds and quadrigeminal bodies, liave been found atrophic/ Not unfrequently wasting of one or several nerves originates in pressure, arising from swellings of various kinds at their origins; so also the nerves within the skull and the spine are compressed less severely by collections of water, by abscesses, extravasation of blood, and other causes, and external to these cavities by various kinds of swellings, dislocated bones, &c. In many instances the causes of atrophy in certain nerves are more obscure.^ The opposite vice, the IRREGULAR INCREASED SIZE OF THE NERVES, is rarely con- genital,** but usually occurs later in various diseases, as inflam- mation, dropsy, cancer; in such cases it is naturally confined to single nerves, but is then sometimes so considerable, that the nerves exhibit a thickness three or four-fold greater than usual.^ ts' (1) In a child without eyes, No. 2888 of my Verzeich., I tbuiul the second, third, fourth, and sixtli jjuirs of nerves, togetlier with tlie first hranch of the fifth pair, slender, withered, yellowish grey, and almost without nervous matter. In another monster, No. 82i)7 of tlie Mus., with deficient eyes, nose, and malformed face, the nerves, from the seventh to the eighth ])air inclusive, were remarkably small.—A monstrous sheep without a face. No. 8021 of the Mus., with deficient olfactory nerves, the following seven pairs very thin, and the right optic at the same time flattened. — A similar lamb. No. 8020, had the olfactory and optic nerves not thicker than a hair, and without any nervous matter; the following four pairs also thin, hut containing sonu^ nervous matter.—In two children, a dog, and two calves, which were horn with small and very imjK>rfect eyes, I found the optic nerves, and in part also the optic beds, too small, v. No. 2;)42, 2;)1.'5, '.Vl'.Vl, 3233, 82fi7, 83()3, 83()1-, and 8()03, of Bresl. Mus.— In a cyclopic sheep without a tongue, I found the fifth, ninth, and twelfth j)airs of nerves very thin. v. my Sclt. Heob. Part I. p. 37.— In a human monster, No. 2885, the optic nerves without nervous matter and tubular.— In a monstrous ])ig, with a disj)osition to cyclopy. No. 8812, the fifth pair was too small; this was also the case with a