OKIGINAL ARTICLES 3 



whilst Barbacci (10) about the same time showed in a case of 

 transverse lesion at the seventh dorsal spinal segment degenerated 

 fibres from that level downwards on either side of the postero- 

 inedian septum as far as the lower sacral region. Also Bruns (11; 

 in 1893 figured descending degeneration in the postero-external 

 columns throughout the first five upper dorsal segments. 



Moreover, about 1894, Gombault and Philippe (12) discovered 

 a small triangular superficial tract which degenerates downwards 

 in the posterior columns of the sacral region; and two years later 

 Hoche showed, as a result of compression at the level of the 

 seventh dorsal segment, not merely degeneration in the comma 

 tract as low as the fifth lumbar segment, but also degenerated 

 fibres at the peripheral part of the posterior columns (superficial 

 bundle of Hoche), which could be traced continuously through 

 the oval field of Flechsig in the lumbar region, and the triangle 

 of Gombault and Philippe in the sacral region as low down as 

 the conus terrninalis. In another case he found the comma 

 tract degenerated from the seventh cervical to the twelfth 

 dorsal segment, and traces of the superficial bundle from the 

 seventh cervical even as low down as the filum terminale. 



In the same year (1896), Drs Alexander Bruce and Muir 

 (13) of Edinburgh published a case in which, as a result of a 

 lesion in man in the lower dorsal region, there was definite 

 degeneration along this particular set of fibres, which extended 

 from the twelfth dorsal segment in close proximity to the 

 postero-median septum through the lumbar to the lowest part 

 of the sacral region. To this tract they very happily gave the 

 name of the fasciculus septo-marginalis. A little later Dr 

 Bruce (14) showed that this tract, together with the cornu- 

 commissural tract (of Pierre Marie) is not degenerated in 

 certain cases of tabes. He gave excellent photographs of the 

 course and position of these tracts as stained in such cases by 

 the Weigert-Pal method, reproductions of which are here given 

 for the sake of comparison, and a reference to which will save 

 further description. 



Obersteiner (15) has also drawn attention to a tract of fibres 

 occupying an almost identical situation, which he names the 

 dorso-median sacral bundle. 



Bischoff (16) in 1896, Flatau (17) in 1897, Zappert (18), 

 and Quesnel (19) in 1898, also threw further light on this 



