126 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



pears to have resulted, I infer that the growth of these bacteria 

 has been mostly, if not entirely, post mortem, and that it has- 

 nothing to do with the explanation of the disease. 



Vessels. — Many of the vessels of the cord show the presence of 

 these bacteria in numbers equal to those found in the membranes, 

 otherwise the vessels are normal, excepting in certain gliomatous 

 areas in the posterior column, where many of them exhibit thick 

 and sclerosed walls ; in other parts of the cord atheroma and end- 

 arteritis are entirely wanting. 



Cord. — No marked pathological lesions are evident in the upper 

 portion of the cord (cervical and upper dorsal) and in no parts are 

 evidences of acute myelitis or softening found. In the lower dor- 

 sal and in the lumbar portions of the cord and, to a much less 

 degree, in the sacral portion, a V-shaped area is found which im- 

 pinges near to, but not entirely on, the peripheral fibers and ex- 

 tends toward the center of the cord to within from .1 to .3 cm. 

 of the gray commissure. In this area a marked proliferation of 

 glia is shown mingled with connective tissue hyperplasia and re- 

 sulting in the formation of a firm mass of tissue in which vessels 

 with greatly thickened walls are found. But few nerve fibers are 

 still remaining in this zone. 



This sclerosis chiefly involves the column of Goll. The general 

 character of the lesion resembles that seen in disseminated scle- 

 rosis. 



Gray Matter. — No gross changes are present in the gray mat- 

 ter. The vessels are moderately injected and there is slight dila- 

 tion of the lymphatics and of the perilymph spaces. 



Since the cord was not placed in fixing fluid for some hours 

 after death, the cytoplasmic findings are not to be absolutely re- 

 lied upon. The technic employed for this purpose was that of 

 Neisl. 



The cell groups are larger and contain more cells than in the 

 human, but the general arrangement of them is as in man, and the 

 ventro-lateral and the ventro-mesial seem to be the most prominent 

 collections of the anterior horns. It is difficult to make out a 

 definite arrangement in the posterior horns. The cytoplasmic 

 alterations are about equally present at all the levels and possess 

 the same general characteristic throughout. The majority of the 

 cells are normal, in so far as we may judge from the results 

 of the Neisl method. The most frequent alteration in the plaques 

 is a coarsely granular disintegration of the chromatic bodies with 

 a chromatophilia of the remaining plaques. Sometimes the frag- 

 mentation is final, and a few cells show chromatolysis, but the 

 above is the most frequent lesion, and, inasmuch as it is most pro- 



