Clinical Treatise on the Diseases of the Nervous System, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Clinical Treatise on the Diseases of the Nervous System, Vol. 2 The morbid processes occurring in the cortical cells of the brain in general progressive paralysis may also develop in the cord under the influence of various acute or chronic inflammatory affections. Degeneration and pigmentary atrophy occur in the multipolar nerve-cells of the anterior horns and in the fibres which unite these cells with the intra-medullary portion of the anterior roots and with the antero-lateral columns. From careful study of the affections of the anterior spinal nerve-roots we have become better acquainted with the influence of these delicate and important parts upon the motor and trophic functions, and a whole series of morbid types have been discovered which may be combined with various bulbar or spinal paralyses. The anatomical data have so much the more importance with regard to the theory and clinical knowledge of the diseases in question, because nature herself, by isolating the lesions in certain nerve-cells, in certain groups of cells, or in certain bundles of the white substance, has furnished us with a positive and precise solution of all the problems which could be determined by experimentation. The most skilful and practised experimenter could never obtain equally positive results. In the following section we shall first examine the rapid inflammatory processes occurring in the anterior horns (myelitis antica acuta) as they are found in acute spinal infantile paralysis and in that of adults; then, the chronic inflammatory processes in the anterior gray columns (myelitis antica chronica), which constitute the fundamental lesion of progressive muscular atrophy and its different forms. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.