ts 
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MULTIPLE NEUROMATA OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. (Gris 
take the stain, proves conclusively that the glia fibrils in these patches are retained and 
serve to form channels, as it were, for the nucleated fibres. 
The elongated nuclei are definitely within the fibre contour and can be readily 
distinguished from the rows of small round nuclei so frequently seen in relation to the 
transverse fibres of the fillet and transverse fibres of the pons. The longitudinal fibres 
stained yellow-brown with Van Gieson’s method and no distinct central filament was 
recognised. The transversely-cut fibres showed a similar structure, a faintly yellow- 
brown dise and a reticulum of glia fibres encircling it: the circular nuclei in relation to 
the fibres showed their identity, in structure and staining, with the elongated nuclei. 
Such is the structure of those simplest nucleated patches: they could be recognised 
as retaining this structure through only a few serial sections, and almost without 
exception they were in relation to the transverse fibres of the mesial fillet or transverse 
fibres of the pons near the median raphe. 
(b) The nucleated patches next to be described with fibres cut transversely (fig. 58) 
and longitudinally (fig. 57) are of an entirely different nature. They were all found 
in relation to strands of the sensory cranial nerves, and it will be convenient to describe 
them with the next group of changes. 
v 
(2) CHancres IN RELATION To THE INTRA-MEDULLARY CouRSE oF SuNsory Roots. 
A reference to fig. 56 shows that the entering strands of the 5th nerve are, for a 
considerable part of their course within the pons, nucleated. Symmetrical changes were 
found in the 5th nerve on the opposite side and in relation to strands of the 8th 
and 9th nerves, though to a less extent. A comparison with fig. 53, showing the 
posterior root-entry zone in the 7th cervical segment, reveals the similarity of the 
process. The whole extra-medullary nerve root seems carried into the pons with the 
fibres retaining their neurilemma sheath and nucleus. Different strands showed this 
to a varying extent of their course, and individual fibres, with the structure of the 
peripheral nerve, became directly continuous with the normal non-nucleated and 
sheathless medullated fibres, the nuclei in the tube becoming more and more isolated 
and the transition occurring almost imperceptibly. 
‘This nucleation of the fibres could be traced far into the pons, and even the deep 
strands of the 5th nerve showed that one third or one half, or even more, of the 
fibres composing them were nucleated. In these deep sensory strands the neurilemma 
sheath was absent, and the nuclei were more definitely within the fibre contour than 
in the more superficial fibres. If such strands were cut transversely we get the appear- 
ance shown in fig. 58, and, if cut longitudinally, that in fig. 57. This seems to us to 
be the meaning of many of the nucleated patches. An explanation would thus also be 
found for the fact that such transversely-cut fibres could often be followed for a 
considerable distance in successive sections with only a slightly varying position, and 
with no very defined relation to any vessels, while the longitudinally-cut fibres soon 
