A pressure-myelitis of the lumbar portion of the cord causes paralysis of the bowel, and in the later stage of some cases of bulbar paralysis it also occurs.
Thus in a patient with chronic myelitis I observed the regular evacuation of a mucous fluid mass from the intestine as often as his bed-sores were cleansed; and the like has been seen in dogs after division of the lumbar cord.
In encephalitis and myelitisthere is an interruption of motor nerve-currents.
At one time there was supposed to be a special relation between injuries of the bones of the head and hepatic abscess, but it is now known {1005} that these cases are not more numerous than those due to osteo-myelitis in any situation.
In the same way, organic affections of the brain and spinal cord, especially acute myelitis and spinal sclerosis and lesions of the vertebral bones, excite intestinal pain.
He attributed these phenomena to an acute transverse myelitis with degenerative changes in the cord.
O'Connor finds that marked benefit follows its use in old cases of myelitis with marked spastic symptoms.
The spinal cord was practically gone between the levels of the fourth and seventh dorsal vertebræ, and diffluent from myelitis up to the third cervical.
Again symptoms of secondary myelitis and meningitis had been observed in some of the fatal cases prior to death.
The spinal cord exhibited no sign of pressure and was firm and continuous, but up to the lower limit of the dorsal region there was septic myelitis and meningitis, the result of pus having tracked up the canal from the sacral bedsore.
Again, the totally feverless commencement of neuralgias, a character which is maintained throughout the progress of the milder cases, is entirely opposed to the idea of a direct connection betweenmyelitis and neuralgia.
Myelitis may be confined to a small spot in the cord or may involve the whole for a variable distance.
When the tumor is within the spinal cord itself all the symptoms of myelitis may be present.
