742 DR ALEXANDER BRUCE AND DR JAMES W. DAWSON ON 
leio-myomata. HrtiicH considers that they must be looked upon not as tumour 
formations but as abnormal sensory centripetal nerves. 
REBIZZI (1903), mm a case of neuroma of the cord, found ganglion cells with 
abundant formation of new nerve fibres which could be traced to the ganglion cells. 
ResizzI thought that a part of a nucleus of grey matter had been cut off in early 
foetal life. 
SWITALSKI (1903), in the cord of a patient with the clinical history of disseminated 
sclerosis, states that in addition to the degeneration of the fibre systems there were 
present numerous neuromata, especially in the lower dorsal and middle cervical segments. 
The nerve fibres composing these nodules were of very varying thickness, often with 
varicosities : they had no sheath of Schwann, nor could an axis-cylinder be stained. 
Oval vesicular nuclei, which gave the nodules a very characteristic appearance, were 
always present. In the lower dorsal region the nodules were altogether in the grey 
matter and always in relation to blood-vessels. In the cervical region the nodules were 
found in the posterior columns and in the pia, and often continued from the pia into 
the septa. In both regions they lay always in a completely normal tissue, and in spite 
of very exhaustive examination, SwITALSKI could trace no connection of the fibres 
composing the nodules with fibres in the neighbourhood. He therefore sees no reason 
to think that these are neuromata of regeneration. He grouped together from literature 
eleven cases of true neuroma of the spinal cord, nine of which had appeared in 
syringomyelia, and thinks that this association of neuromata with syringomyelia points 
to the possibility of a developmental anomaly or disturbed development accounting for 
these formations. 
ORZECHOWSKI (1908), in a case of malformation of the lateral recess of the 4th 
ventricle together with tabes, found neuromata in the region of the central canal and 
in the pia of the cord from the 2nd lumbar segment downwards. The fibres which 
ran spirally round one another to form dense tufts had a delicate axis-cylinder, myelin 
sheath, and distinct neurilemma sheath and nucleus. In serial sections it could be 
proved that the pial fibres arise from the anterior nerve roots, for near the emerging 
anterior roots small bundles of fine fibres could be found passing into the adventitia of 
the pial vessels or free into pial spaces. ‘The fibres could be traced to the base of the 
anterior fissure, and formed nodules in the region of the central canal. The distribution 
of the pial fibres coincides with the localisation of the posterior root affection in the 
lumbo-sacral region. ORZECHOWSKI considers that these aberrant anterior root fibres 
represent a developmental anomaly. 
Rercu (1910) investigated eight tabetic cords, and found typical pial neuromata in 
three cases. Isolated fibres and bundles and nodules were found distributed through 
the thickened pia, chiefly of the lumbo-sacral cord. No distinction as to the origin of 
the fibres could be drawn between the isolated fibres, the bundles, and the nodules, and 
Reton confirms ORZECHOWSKI’S observations that the fibres arise from anterior roots. 
He further states that the pial nerve bundles unite together and leave the pia laterally 
