A memoir / by Sir Samuel Wilks.

  • Wilks, Samuel, Sir, 1824-1911.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A memoir / by Sir Samuel Wilks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tend to show the correctness of Dr. Todd’s theory, when he says that the “ posterior columns propagate the influence of that part of the encephalon which combines with the nerves of volition to regulate the locomotor forces, and to serve as commissures in harmonising the action of the several segments of the cord. ’ In this case. Dr. Gull says, the want of power to regulate the action of the muscles was very characteristic. The legs, when drawn up, as they could be freely, were drawn up with a sudden jerk, and extended in the same manner. The voluntary movements were also fumbling and vague. This is an abbreviated account of the case, but in all par- ticulars resembles what was knowm afterwards as locomotor ataxy and posterior sclerosis of the spinal cord. The date of this paper by Gull is 1857, and it is the first description I have ever read of this form of disease; and as regards the drawings and illus- trations I feel pretty confident that none had ever appeared like them, and especially for this reason, that the microscope had scarcely come into use for examination of the nerve structures. I do not myself remember any description of this form of disease until it was recognised in France as some- thing new, and the name “locomotor ataxy” given to it by either Vulpian or Charcot. Vol. 5, 1859.—In this volume Mr. Cooper Forster gives another case of “ Gastrotomy,” which he per- formed on a child for obstruction in the oesophagus. 7