34 
MR. C. S. SHERRIXGTOX OX OUT-LYING 
Oat-lying Cells in the Anterior Column. 
Among the bundles of transverse fibres slanting from the mesial edge of the 
ventral horn toward the depth of the ventral fissure and the white commissure can, 
not infrequently, be found multipolar ganglion-cells. The cells somewhat resemble 
in form the cells of the ventral cornu itself, but I have not found them quite so 
large as are the latter. They are, in my specimens, obviousl}^ triradiate. The largest 
I have measured is 38 /r in diameter, from the middle of one side across the cell-bod}^ 
to the base of the opposite cell-process. Fig. 1, Plate 3, shows the position and form 
of one of these out-lying individuals, from the cervical coi'd of the Dog between the 
points of exit of the first and second nerves. The section is in the transverse plane 
of the cord. Fig. 2, Plate 4, gives an example of another such cell from the lower part 
of the lumbar enlargement of the Human cord. The cell does not lie far out from the 
limiting edge of the grey cornu. It is much smaller than a neighbouring cell belonging 
to the superficial region of the cornu. The cornual cell can be seen to give a branch 
into the same bundle of transverse fibres as harbours the smaller and out-lying cell. 
Similar cells I have observed to occur in both the cervical and in the lumbar reg-ions 
of the cord, and have seen examples in the Monkey and Cat, as well as in Man a.nd 
in the Dog. They have somewhat the appearance of being aberrant members of a 
groiq^ of cells which occurs scattered in more or less broken fashion along the deeper 
part of the mesial edge of the ventral grey horn, and best seen just above the lumbar 
enlargement. This group was called attention to in the Human cord by PioK,"^ and is 
characterised, according to him, by the fact that the cells give off large processes into 
the fibre-bundles of the white commissure. 
The references to out-lying cells in the anterior column which I have been able to 
discover are three. The earliest by Torquato Beisso in 1873 ; he figures a specimen, 
which was obtained from the cord of the Ox. He writes,! La figura dimostra come 
una grossa cellula bipolare contenuta nelf intreciamento della commissura mandi un 
prolungamento che ripiegando si perde fra le fibre piii mediane della sostanza grigia.” 
A second reference is by Schiefeerdecker.| In speaking of the structure of the cord 
in the lumbar region of, apparently, the Canine cord, he writes that he has found 
occasional cells in the white commissure, sometimes bipolar, but more often “ shaped 
like arrowheads.” He was, it would seem, not aware of the observation by Beisso. 
A third reference is liy PiCK,§ who, after descril)ing the cells of the ventral cornu 
which give off processes from the mesial edge of the cornu, goes on to speak of the 
occasional occurrence in the white commissure of the Human coi'd of cells similar to 
those noted by Schiefeerdecker in the lumbar cord of the Dog. He concludes by 
* Loc. cit. 
f Loc. cit., p. 37. 
I Virchow’s ‘ Arcbiv,’ vol. 67, p. 698. 
§ Loc. cit. 
