Showing papers in "Journal of Anatomy in 1956"

Growth at Adolescence.

Abstract: argument is often, if not acrimonious, at least heated. It gives an impression of the fluidity of opinion on many fundamental ideas under discussion and of the urgency with which cardiac cyanosis in the newborn is regarded. When Dr. William Muscott says that the earliest he has operated for pulmonary stenosis is on an infant 3 days old, and Sir Russell Brock agrees that the earlier in the first month that operation is undertaken the better, and when Dr. Varco asks Dr. Senning 'so far as I know they have never yet catheterized any child intrauterine in Sweden, but they have done it through the delivery canal sometimes-would you tell us the indications of the Scandinavian group for catheterization in the immediate newborn period?', one is indeed being kept up with the times. But that was two years ago and already some of the questions then debated have since been answered. This beautifully printed and well-illustrated stiff paperbacked volume is, and will for a few years yet remain, an invaluable companion to a full-scale textbook on congenital heart disease.

The structure and development of cranial and facial sutures.

Abstract: It is surprising, in view of the controversy which has long raged about the functional role of the sutures in the growth of the skull, that so little attention has been paid to their histological structure and development. The most comprehensive study is that of Sitsen (1933), who describes the development of the lambdoid suture in man between the 8th month of foetal life and 12 years. Mair (1926), Petersen (1930), Troitsky (1932), Bernstein (1933), Weinman & Sicher (1947), Moss (1954), and Scott (1954) have made more limited contributions to the literature. As it was evident that much more detailed and accurate information was required in order to provide the necessary basis for experimental work on the morphogenesis and functions of the sutures, it was decided to investigate the development and structure of a variety of sutures in available foetal, young and adult material.

A study of silver degeneration methods in the central nervous system.

Abstract: A number of reduced silver methods have been used for the demonstration of degenerating axons and their terminations within the central nervous system. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the relative potentialities of the two methods which the authors have found most useful, namely the Gless and Nauta techniques. Much of the literature dealing with silver impregnation methods, as applied to the termination of central nervous axons, is concerned with investigations into the structure of the synaptic region. Studies on the appearances of boutons terminaux, both normal and degenerating, have been reviewed by Gibson (1937), and recently by Glees & Nauta (1955). Work by Glees & Le Gros Clark (1941) and Glees (1941, 1942, 1944) has indicated that reduced silver techniques are especially useful for the investigation of neuro-anatomical connexions in experimental material. It is with this aspect that the present paper is concerned. Following the use of several modifications of the Bielschowsky-Gros technique, Glees developed a reduced silver method that is particularly suitable for the investigation of degenerating material (Glees, 1946). However, this technique also stains normal fibres, with the result that degenerating axons that are scattered through a matrix of normal fibres are not easily seen. This disadvantage has been overcome by a method designed to stain the degenerating axons while suppressing the normal fibre pattern (Nauta & Ryan, 1952), and this technique was later modified to give greater consistency in staining (Nauta & Gygax, 1954). Although several authors have investigated the degeneration cycle of boutons terminaux in their earlier stages (Hoff, 1932; Foerster, Gagel & Sheehan, 1933; Gibson, 1937), there appears to be little data on the time of persistence of the degeneration material derived from the axonal terminal aborizations or from degenerating axons of passage within the central nervous system. Furthermore, the appearance of degeneration produced by the Nauta technique differs from that given by the Glees method, and in some situations has a different time course. In the present work the two methods have been used at different sites within the central nervous system, with a view to determining their relative advantages, and to comparing the appearances produced by each. The time course of the degeneration process has been studied with particular reference to the time of persistence of the degeneration material. It was found that degeneration products stained with the Nauta method persisted for a much longer period than those stained by the Glees method. Additional experiments were therefore carried out in an attempt to investigate the nature of