Spinal cord from a case of tetanus following ovariotomy / by Vincent Harris and Alban Doran.

  • Harris, Vincent Dormer, 1851-1931.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Spinal cord from a case of tetanus following ovariotomy / by Vincent Harris and Alban Doran. 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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    of the clamp, so that the nerves of the pedicle were not so thoroughly crushed as to be rendered powerless in exerting morbid reflex action. On the other hand, the pedicle had been very tightly ligatured in the case from which these sections were taken. It is most probable that the tetanus was not caused by irritation of the nerves of the pedicle, but from the influence of a draught on the patient’s cheek, which induced inflammatory changes in the cord, partly as an inter- stitial inflammation, partly as a kind of catarrh of the lining mem- brane of the central canal. That these changes may be found as the result of other diseases, we have no doubt, nor shall we be surprised if many consider them as artificially produced by media employed in hardening and stain- ing the sections, or as the result of decomposition. The fact that exudations, dilated vessels, and abnormal appearances about the central canal are observed in affections differing from tetanus does not of itself prove that similar conditions may not exist in this disease. Indeed, its clinical symptoms do not encourage us in the expectation of finding any specific change in the cord, which, on the other hand,'1 we feel must be- the structure partly if not chiefly at fault. As fbs artificial appearances, we fail to observe the above- described changes in any of the numerous sections of normal cord which we have prepared in precisely the same manner as these specimens, whilst we have rejected all belief in the morbid nature of the transparent patches seen in a few of the sections since we have found such patches constant, and widely diffused over sections taken from a cord evidently decomposed. These alterations, the Bource of which is so evident, are very different from those to which we call attention, namely the dilated vessels, the interstitial exuda- tion, and the singular changes around the central canal. Hence the opinion that these changes are truly morbid seems far more reasonable than the hypothesis that they are produced by chromic acid, decomposition, or logwood. April GtJi, 1880. /