740 DR ALEXANDER BRUCE AND DR JAMES W. DAWSON ON 
has been much discounted, and CourvoistEr, in his monograph, ‘“‘ Die Neurome,” 1886, 
makes no mention of them. Recent observations are almost entirely limited to 
neuromata of the spinal cord. 
RayMmonp (1893), in a case of syringomyelia, found at different levels of the cord 
numerous small fasciculated nodules in the connective tissue septa of the posterior 
columns. The fine fibres composing these nodules had the structure of peripheral 
nerves and were grouped parallel to each other or intertwined. In addition to the 
central gliosis, there were present gliomata at various levels forming diffuse and 
circumscribed infiltrations of the white matter. The posterior roots, which were 
healthy outside the cord, were interrupted in their intra-medullary course by these 
infiltrations, and in serial sections a direct connection could be traced between the 
entering posterior roots and the fibres composing the nodules. Raymonp looked upon 
the nodules as neuromata of regeneration which had developed as a consequence of 
the interruption of the centripetal posterior roots by glia tumour tissue. 
ScHLESINGER (1895) found similar nodules in two cases of syringomyelia and one 
such nodule in a case of tabes. In the tabetic cord the nodule was found in the upper 
cervical region and passed through only six successive serial sections. It was situated 
at the periphery of the cord lateral to the posterior horn, and was surrounded by a thin 
layer of dense glial tissue. The interlacing fibres of the nodule were thinner and 
stained less clearly than the fibres of the surrounding white matter. In the cases of 
syringomyelia several microscopic nodules were found in the central glious tissue: 
they were sharply contoured and composed of bundles of very fine fibres showing a 
spiral arrangement. Numerous elongated nuclei with their longitudinal axes parallel 
to the longitudinal axes of the fibrils were found in the nodules. Nowhere could any 
connection be traced with fibres of any of the columns of the cord or of the posterior 
roots, and in none of the nodules were any ganglion cells present. SCHLESINGER 
attributed the neuromata to a proliferative process, the result of a long-continued 
irritation. He came to this conclusion because the nodules were found always in a 
pathologically changed tissue with a chronic proliferation of the supporting elements. 
WAGNER (quoted by ScHLESINGER) produced neuromata experimentally in cats by 
dividing the anterior spinal roots. The neuromata always developed at the point 
where the anterior roots left the cord. In one case, where the roots were divided 
intra-medullarily, the nodules developed within the cord. Similar procedure at the 
posterior roots produced no neuroma. 
SAXER (1896), in syringomyelia, found in the central gliosis numerous nerve fibres, 
isolated or in bundles, partly in the adventitia of vessels and partly free in the glious 
tissue. The fibres could be traced to the anterior longitudinal fissure and had the 
structure of peripheral nerves. In the obliterated central canal in the lumbo-sacral 
cord were numerous medullated nerves. SaxeER ascribed the presence of these fibres 
to a regenerative process, but admits that he finds it impossible to explain how this 
had come about. Herverocn (1900), also in a case of syringomyelia, BiscHorswERDER 
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