NOTE ON MUSCLE-SPINDLES IN PSEUDO- 
HYPERTROPHIC PARALYSIS* 
By albert S. GRUNBAUM, M.A., M.D, M.R.C.P. 
In i894t Sherrington gave the first account of the structure and function of muscle- 
spindles based upon physiological experiment. A stimulus was thus given to their more thorough 
examination in pathological conditions. 
Recently Batten has given the results obtained by him in the examination of cases of 
several nervous diseases, finding, however, except perhaps in tabes, no appreciable changes in the 
muscle-spindles. So far as I am aware, no account has yet been published of their condition in 
pseudo-hypertrophic paralysis, and in this disease I have been able to find some changes. 
The material was obtained six hours after death, on a cold winter's day, and carefully preserved, 
but unfortunately, for the most part, not histologically examined until over two years later. 
Fig. I 
M\iscle-spin(lle in iinafFected portion. 
In the vascular system there was considerable thickening of the smaller arteries, due, in part, 
apparently, to hypertrophy of the muscular layer. 
In the central nervous system there was marked dilation of the perivascular lymphatics, and also ot 
the blood-vessels. The latter often contained a large number of leucocytes. In the spinal cord were 
several small hemorrhages. 
In the peripheral nervous s)-stem there was degeneration of some fibres of the smaller nerves. 
* From ' Brain,' pt. Ixxix, 1897. 
f In the last number of ' Brain,' both in his historical resume and in the bibliography, Batten erroneously gives the date of 
Sherrington's first paper as 1895. I' should be 1894. 
