746 DR ALEXANDER BRUCE AND DR JAMES W. DAWSON ON 
evidence of any abnormal fibres: the only sections noted as showing such were in the 
5th cervical segment and in the lower dorsal cord. These were very few in number 
and passed through only a few sections. 
Most of the previous observations on such fasciculated neuromata have been 
confined to abnormal fibres or small nodules in the pia and very isolated nodules in 
the cord substance. ORrzecHowskI has recorded the existence of very numerous 
nodules in the pia and in the region of the central canal in the lumbo-sacral cord m a 
case of tabes with a malformation of the lateral recess of the 4th ventricle. In his 
description he remarks that it is sufficient to give the details of one segment, as all 
showed similar characters. In our sections the great variation in the histological 
picture is amongst its most prominent features, for each serial section showed successive 
changes, and in preparations, even six or eight celloidin sections apart, the change 
was so distinct that without the intervening sections it would have been impossible 
to relate them to one another. It will be concluded from this that the nodules were 
microscopic : even so large a nodule as that represented in fig. 29 passed, as a nodule, 
through at most twelve to fifteen paraffin sections. Its formation and breaking up 
could be traced in two or three sections on either side. 
Other points in which the neuromata in this case differ are that, with few exceptions, 
in those previously described the neuromata, when they existed in the cord substance 
itself, seem to have been defined, almost encapsuled, by dense glia tissue. Again, many 
writers have spoken of having been quite unable, even in serial sections, to trace any 
connection of the fibres of the nodules with fibres of the surrounding parts. Others 
have definitely traced the nodules to fibres arising in relation to anterior nerve roots 
(ORZECHOWSKI), or posterior nerve roots (RaymMonpD). The nodules present in this case 
showed no encapsulation with glia tissue, and, almost without exception, the origin of 
the fibres composing them could be followed for some distance. 
The neuromata were present free in the pial spaces, in the walls of vessels of the pia, 
pial septa, and cord substance, forming either a nodule at one side of the vessel or sur- 
rounding the vessel as a more or less thick sheath; and finally, they were present 
lying quite free in the white and grey matter in definite contiguity with the nervous 
elements. 
The term “neuroma” is here given to all abnormal fibres as well as nodules, for it 
is evident that the difference between them lies wholly in conditions of space and 
possibly of time. It is assumed that the fibres that have plenty of lymph space show 
few intertwinings, while the fibres which have met with any obstruction in their course, 
e.g. from a blockage of the lymph-path, necessarily become twisted and coiled into 
nodules, the most typical form of which gives the impression of a rolled-up ball of wool 
cut through the centre (figs. 8 and 29). 
It would be quite impossible to give anything like a complete picture of the findings 
in the different regions. To attempt to do so would be to lose ourselves in a maze of 
detail, but an effort will be made to convey a clear conception of the chief forms with 
