The degenerations resulting from lesions of posterior nerve roots and from transverse lesions of the spinal cord in man : a study of twenty cases / by James Collier and E. Farquhar Buzzard.

  • Collier, James.
Date:
1903
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The degenerations resulting from lesions of posterior nerve roots and from transverse lesions of the spinal cord in man : a study of twenty cases / by James Collier and E. Farquhar Buzzard. 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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    columns of Burdach and Goll; in the case of the lumbo- sacral fibres they quickly reach and lie alongside the posterior median septum. The cervical and thoracic fibres can be traced through several segments — the cervical through more than the thoracic—in diminishing numbers. The lumbar and sacral fibres enter into the sacral triangle, or dorso-medial bundle, and are thence traceable into the gray matter of the lowest part of the cord. The difference in the path taken by the cervico-thoracic and the lumbo-sacral exogenous descending fibres is more apparent than real, and can be readily explained on anatomical grounds. The column of Goll becomes a distinct formation in the lower part of the thoracic region, and is, no doubt, responsible for checking the mesial course of fibres of higher origin. In the lumbo-sacral cord, on the other hand, there is no definite postero-internal column, and the descending fibres are free to reach the median line without having to pierce a compact bundle of ascending fibres enclosed in a septal sheath. Although at first sight the descending fibres of the thoracic posterior roots would appear, from the smaller number of segments they traverse, to be of shorter length than those of the cervical, lumbar and sacral roots, the difference is probably not one of actual length, but due to the fact that the segments of the former region of the cord are of greater length than those of the latter. The descending fibres of all posterior roots rapidly diminish in number as they pass caudalwards, and this diminution is undoubtedly due to the leakage of many of them into the gray matter in the cornu-commissural region, some of them passing to Clarke's column and some into the posterior gray matter of the same side. Our second case is of much less importance in so far as it throws any light on the course of exogenous descending fibres. It resembles in origin others which have been published, notably those of Darkschewitsch, Dejerine and Spiller, iVIarinesco and Souques, Wallenberg and Goldstein, all of which were examined by the March! method. A comparison of the results obtained brings out two im-