ART. IX. Die Spermatorrhoea nach ihren Körperlichen Verhältnissen, ihrer Anatomischen Grundlage und dem Heilverfahren in derselben, in Nerven-, Gemüths-, und Geisteskrankheiten. Von Dr. J. F. H. ALBERS 161 On Spermatorrhoea: its Influence on the Body, &c. By Dr. J. F. H. ART. X.-Etudes Pratiques sur les Maladies Nerveuses et Mentales, accom- Practical Studies on Nervous and Mental Diseases, accompanied by Statis tical Tables. By Dr. H. GIRARD DE CAILLEUX. ART. XI.-Outlines of Surgery; being an Epitome of the Lectures on the Principles and Practice of Surgery delivered at St. Thomas's Hospital. By F. LE GROS CLARK, Surgeon to the Hospital, &c. ART. XII.-Excursions Scientifiques dans les Asiles d'Aliénés. Scientific Visits to Lunatic Asylums. By Dr. P. BERTHIER, &c. ART. XIII.-Experiments on the Formation of Infusoria in Boiled Solutions, &c. &c. By JEFFRIES WYMAN, M.D. ART. XIV. On the Influence of the Weather upon Disease and Mortality. By R. E. SCORESBY-JACKSON, M.D., &c. ART. XV.—Den almindelige Therapie, i fire Forelæsninger. Af Dr. og Prof. General Therapeutics, in four Lectures. By Professor BANG. ART. XVI.-Proceedings of the International Temperance and Prohibition Convention, held in London, September 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, 1862. Edited by Rev. J. C. STREET, Dr. F. R. LEES, and Rev. D. BURNS ART. I-Contributions to the Chemistry and Physiology of Foetal Nutrition. Being an Inaugural Thesis to which the Medical Faculty of the Uni- versity of Edinburgh awarded a Gold Medal in 1862. By ARTHUR ART. II.-Remarks on some Cases of Vascular Tumour seated in Muscle. By ART. III.-On the Phytopathology of the Skin, and Nosophytodermata, the so-called Parasitic Affections of the Skin. By ERASMUS WILSON, F.R.S. 199 (CHIEFLY FOREIGN AND CONTEMPORARY.) Half-Yearly Report on Physiology. By HENRY POWER, F.R.C.S., &c. Half-Yearly Report on Materia Medica and The itics. By ROBERT HUNTER Half-Yearly Report on Pathology and Principles and Practice of Medicine. Quarterly Report on Surgery. By JOHN CHATTO, Esq., M. R.C.S. E. Quarterly Report on Midwifery. By ROBERT BARNES, M.D., F.R.C.P., &c. . 274 Note on a New Mode of applying some External Agents to the Eye. By F. 1. Lehrbuch der Physiologie für akademische Vorlesungen und zum Textbook of Physiology for Academic Lectures and Private Study. By Dr. OTTO FUNKE, Professor in the University of Leipzig. Third 2. Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen. Von J. M. SCHIFF, Pro- fessor in Bern. I. Muskel und Nerven Physiologie.-Lahr, 1859. Textbook of Human Physiology. By J. M. SCHIFF, Professor in Bern. 3. Neue Untersuchungen über den Bau des Ruckenmarks. Von B. New Researches on the Structure of the Spinal Cord. By B. STILling. 4. Further Researches on the Grey Substance of the Spinal Cord. By J. LOCKHART CLARKE, F.R.S. (Philosophical Transactions,' 5. Researches on the Devement of the Spinal Cord in Man, Mam- malia, and Birds. By J. L. CLARKE. (Philosophical Transactions,' 6. A Report on Recent Researches into the Minute Anatomy of the 7. The Minute Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in the 65-XXXIII. 1 8. Ueber die Sensorischen Functionen des Rückenmarks. PFLÜGER.-Berlin, 1854. Von E. On the Sensorial Functions of the Spinal Cord. By E. PFLÜGER. 9. Ueber die Gekreuzten Wirkungen des Rückenmarks. Von A. VON BEZOLD. (Zeitschr. für wissensch. Zoologie,' ix. MEISSNER'S Bericht,' 1858.) HENLE und On the Crossed Actions of the Spinal Cord. By A. VON BEZOLD. 10. Course of Lectures on the Physiology and Pathology of the Central Nervous System. By C. E. BROWN-SEQUARD, M.D. 1860. Also in Journal de Physiologie.' THE difficulties met with in the study of the structure and functions of the central nervous organs depend chiefly on the great complexity of their organization. To the anatomist, the softness and delicacy of the component elements obstruct and render difficult microscopic elucidation, whilst the physiologist studying the results of vivisections on animals has to contend with, 1st, the difficulty of ascertaining phenomena in themselves subjective; and 2ndly, in instances when this is no obstacle, and in which the results are sufficiently objective, he has still the difficulty of being able to divide or to irritate one part without at the same time operating on others. Remembering these things, it will not appear strange that, in reference to the structure and functions of the spinal cord, opposite and conflicting opinions should still be entertained. In regard to the method of investigating structure, there is but one plan which, with more or less modification of detail, is now generally adopted. This consists in hardening the organ by chromic acid, or alcohol, so that thin sections can be made, which may be rendered transparent by turpentine, chloride of calcium, &c. By maceration in carmine, observation may in some points be facilitated. By the study of many hundreds of such preparations, something like a general plan of the structure of this complex organ may be arrived at. We feel that to enter into an account of anatomical details would only perplex and weary the general reader; but an idea of the plan or type of structure to which these details lead cannot fail to interest the most practical mind, since some conception of structure is essential to an understanding of healthy and diseased function. In histological language, the spinal cord may be defined as a reticulated column of connective-tissue, containing in its substance bloodvessels, and in its meshes nerve-fibres and nerve-cells. It consists, in fact, of nervous and non-nervous elements, the latter being subservient and secondary to the former. It is only quite recently that anatomists have recognised the existence of a considerable amount of connective-tissue in the spinal cord, and here as everywhere we owe much to the researches of Virchow. Although Keuffel, in the year 1811, demonstrated by a sort of maceration of the cord that a framework of connective-tissue permeated every part, subsequent investigators (Henle, Stilling, Arnold, Gerlach, Köl liker) overlooked it. The history of connective-tissue, and the controversies amongst its investigators, Reichert, Henle, Remak, Virchow, &c., would form subject-matter for many pages of writing. Suffice it here to say that in 1853* Virchow, in writing on the corpora amylacea, described the ependyma ventriculorum as a species of connective-tissue. Further, he pointed out that the central grey matter of the spinal cord (the substantia grisea centralis of Kölliker) is a continuation of this connective-tissue, and that the nerve elements of the central organs are everywhere permeated and held together by connectivetissue. In 1854, Owsjannikow, in his thesis On the Spinal Cord of the Fish,'t demonstrated that both in the anterior and posterior fissure of the spinal cord a process of the pia mater penetrates to the very centre of the cord and surrounds the central canal; and Kupffer.‡ in similar researches on the frog, showed that fibres of connective-tissue are connected with cells of connective-tissue. Finally, Bidder insisted that the grey matter is a matrix for the nerve-cells, consisting of connective-tissue in different stages of development and of numerous bloodvessels. In the white substance, too, there is found a framework of connective-tissue, connected at one margin with the grey substance, on the other with the pia mater. Each white nerve-fibre is encircled by connective-tissue, and in some transverse sections, in which the nervetubes have been dislodged by washing, the skeleton of connective-tissue present in the white substance is beautifully distinct. If the theory of Virchow, that all morbid cell-growths originate in the corpuscles of the connective-tissue, be true, the demonstration of this tissue in every part of the nervous system is pathologically important. There can, we think, be little doubt that a large part of the grey substance of the spinal cord does consist of connective-tissue, but we do not feel disposed to agree with Bidder and his disciples in believing that all the cells of the posterior cornua are of this character; we should rather regard them (as Clarke, S. van der Kolk and others do) as undoubtedly nervous, whilst those of the smallest size are probably not so. In studying the minute structure of this and other parts of the nervous system, the physiologist looks for some plan or type of structure which will harmonize with what experiment has taught him relative to the function of the organ. To us it appears that the time for such a generalization has not yet arrived, and that the many discrepancies amongst observers show the need for much patient inquiry. Nevertheless, some investigators have given such a connected and unhesitating account of their researches, that it is not difficult to lay before the reader a plan of the structure of this complicated organ. The various views entertained on the structure of the spinal cord 1854. * Virchow's Archiv, Band. vi. Owsjannikow: Disquis. Microscop. de Med. Spin. Text. in Piscibus. Dorpat, Kupffer: De Med. Spinalis Textura in Ranis. Untersuch. über die Textur des Rückenmarkes. 1857. on the Grey Substance of the Spinal Cord. 1859. Dorpat, 1854. Bidder: Clarke: Further Researches now presuppose that all nerve-cells give or receive nerve-fibres, and that no such thing as an apolar nerve-cell exists. In a functional point of view, cells may be regarded as- -1st, organs of excitation or stimulation (motor cells); 2nd, as organs through which this excitation is brought into contact with the conscious principle (sensory cells); 3rd, as organs which communicate and modify this irritation in its passage from one fibre to another (reflectory or sympathetic cells). But supposing that cells are functionally distinct, is this difference in their function characterized by any structural peculiarity by which we could recognise them? A Russian observer, Jacubowitsch by name, asserts that they are morphologically distinct, and that in the spinal cord three forms may be distinguished-1st, large multipolar cells which he terms motor cells; 2nd, small cells with three or four processes, which become extremely ramified-sensory cells; 3rd, larger cells than the sensory, round and with only two processes-sympathetic cells. These views require much corroborative observation, and at present can scarcely be accepted on the strength of one observer's opinion. As regards the course and arrangement of the nervous fibres in the cord very various views are entertained. The simplest and most diagramatic is that of Bidder, and his pupils, Owsjannikow, Kupffer,* &c. These observers believe that the only nerve-cells in the cord are situated in the anterior cornua. These cells are multipolar, and they give off processes which have five distinctive relations-1st, there are processes which connect adjacent cells in the same half of the cord; 2nd, processes which connect together cells of opposite sides of the cord, forming the anterior commissure; 3rd, processes which course upwards to the brain and in the white columns, which are the aggregate of these processes; 4th, processes which go off to form the fibres of the posterior; and 5th, the anterior nerve-roots. According to this view the cells of the spinal cord are structures superimposed on the fibres of the anterior and posterior nerve-fibre in their course to the brain, serving on the one hand to connect the one side of the cord with the other, and on the other to connect anterior with posterior roots with each other and with cells above and below. He Stilling, than whom no one has wrought more at the structure of the cord, takes a view not very different from that of Bidder. supposes, however, that the posterior cornua contain true nerve-cells which, like the cells in the anterior cornua receive fibres from the corresponding nerve-roots, and send off other fibres to the brain in the white substance of the cord. The cells on the same and on opposite sides are connected in every direction. In this country important and careful observations have been made by Mr. Lockhart Clarke, but these are of a character much more complex than the observations of most German writers. For a condensed * Bidder und Kupffer: Untersuch. über die Textur des Rückenmarkes. Leipzig, 1857. + B. Stilling: Neue Untersuchungen über den Bau des Rückenmarkes. 1859. Henle und Meissner's Bericht for 1859, p. 198. |