The pathological prodromes of taboparesis : syphilis, meningitis, the genesis of the cranial nerve, implications / by Tom A. Williams.

  • Williams, Tom A. (Tom Alfred), 1870-
Date:
1910
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The pathological prodromes of taboparesis : syphilis, meningitis, the genesis of the cranial nerve, implications / by Tom A. Williams. 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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    cult laboratory methods, and is within the reach of any practitioner. The cells in the syphilitic meningitis differ also in kind, being surrounded by a narrow zone which easily colors with orange. Moreover, the polynu- clear neutrophile cells may also occur; but the most characteristic cells are the basophile young plasma cells, which, it must be remembered, are very un- usual in the really normal connective tissue, and are pathognomonic of chronic morbid reacti5n. The kidney-shaped mononuclears and the active macro- phages and the eosinophiles may also be present. Now, although such appearance always occurs in syphilis of the nervous system, yet we cannot affirm that they are syphilitic in nature until we find the Treponema pallidum, or find some antibody to it. The reaction devised by Wassermann is not at present believed to be really specific in the sense in which Bordet and Gengou first devised the principle. For absolute rigor we must therefore fall back upon the law of invariable succession. A most important advance in our knowledge of this succession has been made by the researches of Vincent. He has had occasion to puncture the arachnoid sac of a large number of patients with and without syphilitic history, the latter sometimes show- ing only a single symptom, such as paralysis of the third, sixth, seventh, or eighth nerve. He has also punctured the subarachnoid cavity just after the on- set of symptoms. In all of these he has found con- siderable lymphocytosis, and it seems absurd to sup- pose that a reaction of this nature is not indicative of chronic meningitis antedating for a considerable period the nervous symptoms for which the patient consulted, which had lasted only a few days in some instances.