Harris & Spilsbury: Acute Cerebral Softentng
muscle spindles, in the section shown by Dr. Howell, it was very difficult to express an opinion on a section through any one portion of a muscle spindle. It was well known that a section through the equatorial region of a muscle spindle differed greatly from a section cut through one of the poles. The muscle fibres at the equatorial region lost their striation at a certain point; they contained curious big cells, and the nuclei became central in the muscle fibres. The space which Dr. Howell described with a homogeneous material he would have thought was compatible with the normal lymphoid space which nearly always existed at the equatorial region. He could not say there was anything definitely abnormal in the section shown by Dr. Howell, but it was impossible to express a definite opinion without seeing serial sections, and it was difficult to get such a series of a muscle spindle. Dr. HOWELL replied that he was glad to hear Dr. Batten's opinion about the muscle spindles, but in each of the muscle sections examined there were many spindles which presented the appearances described, and they could scarcely all have been cut through the equatorial region. He would, however, try to get serial sections.