74 
THOMPSON YATES AND JOHNSTON LABORATORIES REPORT 
All these haemorrhages were of quite recent origin, there being no trace or 
blood pigment. Below the third dorsal segment there were only some extravasated 
corpuscles around the infiltrated vessels. The other parts of the spinal cord all 
showed changes similar to those of the cervical part to a varying extent. Filaria 
embryos were present here and there in the vessels of brain and spinal cord. 
The nerve fibres often showed alterations. The cerebral convolutions presented 
a marked degeneration of the supra- and intraradiar fibres. Usually there was slight 
degeneration of the fibres all over the brain, most marked around the larger foci of 
infiltrated vessels, the degeneration being both of older and more recent date. The 
fibres were often swollen and disintegrated. The pons and medulla showed 
degeneration of the medullated fibres irregularly distributed over the whole section, 
well marked around the infiltrated vessels, but most pronounced in the region of the 
haemorrhages, where Marchi's method showed an extensive recent degeneration. 
The spinal cord presented the same condition, but certainly more degeneration in the 
posterior than in the lateral columns, and less still in the anterior columns. 
The large nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord which contained a fair amount 
of pigment, showed very marked changes, not confined to a certain group, but 
irregularly distributed in the whole central nervous system. The cells in the basal 
ganglia and of the anterior cornua of the cord were in an advanced stage of alteration. 
In the neighbourhood of normal nerve cells were others whose processes seemed to be 
broken away. They were spherical in shape with a dilated pericellular lymph space. 
They often showed chromatolysis, the Nissl bodies were nearly disintegrated, and a 
powdery mass occupied the whole body of the cell instead. Sometimes the 
chromatolysis was only peripheral, the Nissl bodies in the centre well preserved ; at 
other times, the change was only central, in the periphery the Nissl bodies being easily 
distinguishable, and the centre occupied by a homogenous mass. The nucleus was 
often normal, but at other times had an irregular contour, or was even not distinguish- 
able at all. Here and there were nerve cells with vacuolated protoplasm. Some of 
the nerve cells were oedematous, others were shrunken, stained dark blue, and in a later 
stage represented by a number of disintegrated fragments ; they were pyknotic. At 
various levels in the cord, the number of the large anterior root cells seemed to be 
unequal on the two sides. 
The nerve bundles coming off from the spinal cord also showed great dilatation of 
their vessels, sometimes forming more than half the bulk. Frequently there was 
slight degeneration of the fibres and the vessels were surrounded by a thin layer of 
lymphocytes. The spinal ganglia at the various levels showed changes analogous to 
those in the cord, viz., small haemorrhages between the ganglion cells, and slight 
round-celled infiltration of the vessels. Haemorrhages were also present in the 
surrounding fat. 
In the peripheral nerves were sometimes signs of neuritis, small-celled infiltration 
in the endo- and perineurium, and slight degeneration of the fibres. 
