B Anatomy, Neuropathology and Regeneration
CHAPTER 7
ANATOMICAL DATA ON VERTEBRAL
COLUMN AND SPINAL CORD
Most textbooks on anatomy and histology deal adequately with the structures of the
vertebral column as well as with the basic structures of the spinal cord, and textbooks
on anatomy such as Gray's, Sobotta-Becher, Braus and Rauber-Kopsch's are easily
accessible. Readers who wish to study more details of the vertebral structures are referred
to the textbooks of Pick (1911), Hovelaque (1937), Lob (1954), Brocher (1955), Schliiter
(1964) and Schmorl & Junghanns (1968). Those who are interested in detailed neuro-
anatomical and histological research on the spinal cord are referred to the comprehensive
review of Pollack (1935)5 and the work of Romanes (195I, 1965) and Balthasar (1952).
Neuro-histology developed as a special branch of anatomy since Clarke (1851) and
Stilling (1857) gave detailed description of the nucleus in the medial portion of the
posterior horn, named ever since the Clarke-Stilling column. During the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries a great deal of information on neuro-histology has accumulated
and the reader is particularly referred to the pioneer work of men such as Golgi (1886),
His (1893)5 Cajal (1895-1935)5 Nissl (1903), Hortega (1920,1932) and Spielmeier (1922).
Moreover, in recent years electron-microscopy has greatly advanced our knowledge of
the highly organized and detailed morphological structures of synapses and intracellular
structures of ganglion cells of the spinal cord. The time has passed when the spinal cord
was called in anatomical textbooks 'the simplest and most primitive part of the nervous
system'.
The present account is confined to anatomical data related especially to the clinical
and anatomical pathology of the spinal cord.
VERTEBRAL COLUMN
The vertebral column represents an elastic and flexible bony structure consisting of 24
independent vertebrae 7 cervical, 12 thoracic and 5 lumbar which although firmly
connected by articulations and ligaments allow a limited amount of movement on one
another. The elastic quality of the vertebral column is secured by the cartilaginous
intervertebral discs interposed between two neighbouring vertebrae. There are no inter-
vertebral discs between atlas and axis, the first being between 2nd and 3rd cervical
47
