224 THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
either the faradic or constant current. The small muscles of the thumb, however, gave the 
typical reaction of degeneration with the galvanic current. 
Sensation. — Slight impairment noticed in the skin over the hands. 
Reflexes. — The knee jerks were obtained with great difficulty. 
Examination of the rest of the nervous system showed no abnormality. About one month 
after admission pulmonary complications set in, to which the patient succumbed in a few days. 
Au l OPS^- (48 hours after death ). 
The lungs were found to be extremely congested and oedematous, and the heart markedly 
hypertrophied and dilated. The kidneys were typically granular and contracted. The brain was 
pale and oedematous. The spinal cord and certain muscles and nerves were reserved for 
microscopical examination. 
Peripheral Nerves and Spinal Roots 
(1) Posterior Introsseous Nerve (Fig. i). — This was treated with half per cent, osmic 
acid, and a piece completely teased. Five of the nerve fibres were in this way seen to show 
breaking up of the myelin. The remainder of the fibres which took the osmic stain appeared 
normal. 
Another piece was embedded in paraffin and cut transversely. The sections showed 
marked atrophy of the nerve fibres, quite half having disappeared ; on the other hand, those fibres 
which took up the stain presented the normal black ring, and did not show any indications of an 
acute change, with the exception of a few which appeared swollen. 
(2) Ulnar Nerve. — Treated in a similar way. No fibres were seen in process of 
degeneration, but in cross section considerable atrophy was found, but less marked than in the 
case of the posterior interosseous nerve. 
(3) Spina/ Roots (Fig. 2). — The roots of the Vlth, Vllth, and Vlllth segments were 
examined by the methods of Marchi and Schafer. 
The posterior roots appeared quite normal. 
The anterior roots of these segments in each case showed distinct atrophy of nerve fibres. 
This was marked in the Vllth root, but in none was the atrophy equal in extent to that found in 
the posterior interosseous and ulnar nerves. 
Muscles. — Pieces of the extensor muscles of the hand, and of the interossei were hardened 
in Muller's fluid, part stained with borax carmine, and part by Schafer's method. The change 
in the extensor muscles was extreme. Certainly over 90 per cent, of the fibres were atrophied, the 
majority were not more than I'^fx in diameter. They retained, however, their cross striation, 
and with the exception of a few fibres no evidence was found of an acute fatty change. The 
connective tissue was much increased. The interossei were very much less altered. 
Muscle Spindles. — In two previously recorded cases of peripheral neuritis these have been 
examined. In Batten's* case both the intrafusal muscle and its nerve were normal, in 
GuDDEN'st case they both showed pathological change. 
* Batten. ' Brain,' Parts 57 and 58, p. 171, 1897. 
t GuHden. 'Arch. f. Psychiatrie,' Bd. 28, p. 697, 1896. 
