NERVE DEGENERATION IN POLIOMYELITIS

Abstract

In poliomyelitis there is a close and evident relation between permanent functional loss and its underlying lesions. The residual paralysis which occurs in the typical case is readily attributable to the death of groups of anterior horn neurons. But with stages intermediate between the first association of the virus with the cell and the final damage wrought we are not familiar. Shortcomings in our knowledge concerning the living condition of the nerve cell make difficult the interpretation of appearances seen in fixed and stained preparations. When affected segments of the spinal cords of monkeys killed during the preparalytic stage and during the first days of paralysis are contrasted, there is often shown the rapid destruction of many nerve cells. Others of the affected segments, damaged in varying degree yet retaining a semblance of life, are common, their number varying in the individual case. It is in such cells that Covell,