494 
W. L. WILLIAMS. 
In some cases, one of the gray cornua may be found shrunken 
to one-fifth its normal size; while in others, the gray cornua and 
commissue are represented by a shrivelled, fibroid mass,-the corn- 
issue, in some cases, having wholly disappeared, as has also the 
central canal. 
The author’s autopsical notes offer no essential differences from 
those notes in my report. (See current vol. of Review). 
The author confines his microscopical study of the central ner¬ 
vous system to the spinal cord, but thinks it probable that the 
encephalon may show important changes also, in far-advanced 
cases. 
Even in early stages of the disease, the nerve-cells of the cord 
show a loss of contour in their nuclei, division of the same, ap¬ 
pearance of granules in the cell-contents, and loss of the nuclei 
by this granular degeneration. Other nerve-cells undergo pig¬ 
ment degeneration, others suffer from the invasion of migratory 
cells, and in others the nuclei atrophy, leaving vacuoles. 
The protoplasmic prolongations, or poles of the cells, undergo 
similar changes to the cell-contents and are frequently destroyed, 
or, while undergoing degeneration, assume a nodulated appear¬ 
ance. 
The ground-substance or neuroglia assumes a sieve-like ap¬ 
pearance owing to numerous small cavities, either partly or 
wholly empty, probably due to atrophy, to destruction and ab¬ 
solution of the nerve-cells, or to enlargement of the pericellular 
spaces. 
The capillaries of the neuroglia are greatly widened, either 
uniformly or aneurismally, while in other cases, through embo¬ 
lism or external pressure, the vessel wastes away to an impermea- 
able fibre. 
Thrombi of pigment-cells and of white blood-cells are seen. 
Large and small blood extravasations occur in the perivascular 
spaces, and, especially near the large fissures, are to be seen large 
and small granular, degenerating masses whose absorbtion prob¬ 
ably leaves vacuoles. 
Other lumbo-sacral sections show in place of the central 
canal, a lentil-sized, open space, extending through many sue- 
