Volume 3

A manual of pathological anatomy / translated from the German by W.E. Swaine, E. Sieveking, C.H. Moore and G.E. Day.

  • Rokitansky, Carl von, 1804-1878.
Date:
1844-52
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of pathological anatomy / translated from the German by W.E. Swaine, E. Sieveking, C.H. Moore and G.E. Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    of tlie ventricles. Hed softening (myelitis) assumes tlie very remarkable form wliicli I have just described as central softening of the cord. Yelloiv softening may^ without doubt, occur in the cord as a primary and idiopathic disease; but my own ob- servation has furnished me with instances of its secondary form only, in and around spots of inflammation, and encom- passing morbid growths. Induration of the cord, though comparatively rare, yet does occur in all the forms, and with all the import which were asserted of it in the brain. Indurations of slight degree are the sequels of general diseases, and are unaccompanied by any mani- fest further anomaly. More considerable indurations are com- bined with atrophy. And, lastly, condensations and callosities of parts of the cord, are met with as consequences of inflam- mation, apoplexy, and morbid growths. They are seated mostly in the white columns. 5. Morbid growths.—Growths of this nature, even those which, like tubercle and cancer, are frequent in the brain, are very unfrequent in the spinal cord. a. Tubercle I have observed only in combination with other advanced tuberculoses. Its principal seat is the cendcal or lumbar part of the cord, where it sometimes occupies the white fibres, sometimes the gray substance. As in the brain, it leads to inflammation (red softening) and to yellow softening. I have never seen a tuberculous cavity in the cord. Sometimes several tubercles are grouped together, none exceeding the size of millet- or hemp-seed; at other times only one exists, which is of large dimensions, equalling a pea or a bean. b. Exclusively of several cases of circumscribed callous indu- ration of the white columns, as to the cancerous nature of which I am still in doubt, I have met with but one case of cancer of the cord. It was a solitary nodule of medullary cancer. Ollivier mentions several examples of diffused carcinomatous growths, as well as of so-called colloid cancer. c. Among the entozoa, I have repeatedly seen the cysti- cercus in the cervical portion of the spinal marrow. The acephalocyst sacs, so far as has been observed, have no con- nection Avith the cord, their nidus is even outside the dura mater. In one case the cyst forced its w^ay into the canal of the arachnoid.