Degeneration of the Papillo-macular Bundle in Apes and Its Significance in Human Neuro-pathology.

Introduction ROTHMANN (1906), Schroder (1908), and Schob (1931), published the early work on spontaneous lesions of the peripheral optic pathways in isolated cases of apes who died of a diffuse degenerative process in the white matter of the centrum ovale and (or) the spinal cord. These authors gave contradictory descriptions of the lesions in the optic pathways. Scherer (1932), who first recognized the pathological identity of this spontaneous disease in apes with that known in the human as " sub-acute combined degeneration " (Scherer, 1937) described these optic lesions in more detail. He emphasized their comparative frequency in this condition, and compared them to the rare optic nerve degenerations reported in human subacute combined degeneration. During recent systematic researches on the peripheral optic pathways in monkeys dying from a variety of causes, degenerative lesions in the optic nerves, chiasma, and tracts were found in a surprisingly high percentage of the animals, without degenerative changes elsewhere in the nervous system. Also, in these animals, the keepers had not noticed any visual disturbance during life. The purpose of this paper is first to describe the frequency, exact localization, and histological characteristics of these lesions, and to discuss the possible pathogenesis. Secondly, to compare these lesions with corresponding changes occurring in man and also with those in monkeys affected by definite degenerative changes in other parts of the nervous system (subacute combined degeneration).