168 LOCALIZED ELECTEIZATION. 



to certain lesions of tlie cord, if, as Samuel and Barensprung 

 believe, the trophic nerves take their origin only from the spinal 

 ganglia. I shall hereafter describe cases which show, in the 

 spinal disease of infancy, the muscular nutrition suffering more 

 profoundly than the osseous, and vice versa. 



It is well known that peripheral nervous lesions produce various 

 changes in the skin, which prove the presence of cutaneous 

 trophic filaments in the peripheral nerves. This fact, first pointed 

 out by the illustrious English surgeon, Mr. Paget,^ has been con- 

 firmed by other observers. I remember that I have myself often 

 witnessed it ; but I must confess that I did not perceive its im- 

 portance, or, at least, that I did not investigate its mechanism. 



I should observe, also, that in progressive locomotor ataxy 

 (sclerosis of the posterior columns of the cord), and in secondary 

 sclerosis of the lateral columns, consecutive to hperaorrhage in the 

 corpora striata, we sometimes have lesions of nutrition of the skin 

 (eschars), of the articulations, and of the tendinous sheaths (arthro- 

 pathies). These important facts have been discovered by M. 

 Charcot.^ 



The foregoing facts and considerations seem to me to show that 

 the origin of the anatomical elements of the spinal ganglia is sub- 

 ject to a general law of centralization ; which it is the tendency of 

 physiological experiment, and of clinical observation, more and more 

 to establish. Thus, the great sympathetic was considered as a 

 kind of nervous centre independent of the spinal centre ; but 

 observations and experiments have shown that lesions of the cord 

 and of the medulla produce, in local circulations, disorders analogous 

 to those which follow direct lesions of the sympathetic. These 

 facts prove the existence of nervous fibres of the great sympathetic, 

 in the points of the spinal centre from which the nerves producing 

 such disorders take their origin. In the same way it has been 

 shown that the spinal ganglia should not be considered as the 

 exclusive centres of the trophic nerves in general, nor even of 

 the cutaneous trophic nerves, which seem only to hold to them a 

 relation of particular dependence. 



E. — Anatomical considerations. — {a). According to Barensprung, 

 anatomy shows that the sj^inal ganglia are nervous centres, the 

 unipolar cells of which do not communicate with the spinal cord. 

 He rests upon the opinion of Kolliker, who wrote: "As far as I 



^ Paget, ' Surgical Pathology,' Vol. i., pathologique, torn, i., 1868, pp. 308-313). — 



Medical Times,' 1864. [ 8ur quelques arthropathies qui paraissent 



^ Charcot, JSote sur la formation rapide ; dependrc d'mie h'sion du cerveuu ou de la 



d une escliarre u la /esse du cote paralyse moelle epini ere (Idem., pp. 161-178, 379- 



dans I'he'miple'gie re'cente de cattse cere'- ' 100, PI. 6). 

 brale Archives de physiqlogie nonnale ct 



