Histological description of an eyeball : with dropsical degeneration of the nuclei and protoplasm of the rod and cone visual cells of the retina which clinically simulated glioma / by G. E. de Schweinitz and E. A. Shumway.

  • De Schweinitz, G. E. (George Edmund), 1858-1938.
Date:
[1901]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Histological description of an eyeball : with dropsical degeneration of the nuclei and protoplasm of the rod and cone visual cells of the retina which clinically simulated glioma / by G. E. de Schweinitz and E. A. Shumway. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    mously swollen cells, each of which possesses a shrunken, distorted nucleus, coarse, highly refractive granules, and masses of pigment. The pigment is in fine rods, and distinctly of the type peculiar to the retinal pigment cells. In many places all that can be recognized of the cell is a large, oval vacuole in the exudate, which contains an isolated nucleus and scattered pigment granules. These pells are espe- cially numerous on the temporal side. They have remained attached to the outer edge of the exudate, and consequently have been separated from the choroid by the shrinking of the former, but they evidently represent the line of pigment described on the surface of the choroid in the macroscopical report. The retinal pigment cells form a regular layer, which has remained adherent to the surface of the choroid. The optic nerve is partially atrophied, but the majority of nerve- fibres retain the Weigert nerve-sheath stain. The principal changes occur in the retina. It is moderately thick- ened. The nerve-fibre layer is (Edematous, and the supporting fibres of Fig. Detached and thickened retina. Miiller are prominent. The ganglion cells are in an advanced condi- tion of chromatolysis; they are distorted and shrunken, their processes are broken abrii[)tly off, the Nissl granules are absent, and the cell bodies show numerous vacuoles. The rods and cones have entirely disappeared, and the fibres of Miiller extend in the form of fine arcades a short distance beyond the limitans externa, and in places show the presence of nuclei similar to those in the external nuclear layer. (Com- pare Deutschmann's' article, Arckiv f. Ophtlialmolorjie, xxv. 3, and Tartuferi's,'' in Centralblalt /. die med. Wissenscliaften, 1882, xx. 801.) In the nasal half of the retina, commencing 1 mm. from the nerve entrance and running for a distance of about 1.5 mm., is a series of cyst-like spaces, each measuring O.IG to 0.25 mm. in diameter, situated in the position of the external nuclear layer, which is here absent. A similar series begins in the temporal leaf 3 mm. from the nerve entrance