An Atlas of Myelography presents spinal contrast imaging as practiced in 1948 through annotated cases and radiographic examples. Ernest H. Wood, Jr. examines normal anatomy and appearances associated with tumors, disc disease, inflammation, and congenital abnormalities. The atlas is suited to historical research on spinal imaging and neurological diagnosis.
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Wood's atlas uses images and accompanying explanations to relate the contrast column to spinal anatomy. Normal examinations introduce structures such as the thecal sac, nerve root sleeves, conus medullaris, and cauda equina. The case format then examines how pathological changes alter the appearance of these structures on myelography.
Examples include extradural defects from disc disease, displacement associated with extramedullary tumors, intramedullary lesions, and inflammatory or developmental abnormalities. Captions connect radiographic findings with clinical context and the diagnostic reasoning of the period. As a 1948 publication, the book offers radiologists and historians a record of spinal investigation during an important stage in the development of neuroradiology.
Wood's 1948 atlas pairs radiographic plates with short explanations, teaching readers to read the contrast column against known spinal anatomy. Normal cases establish the baseline; abnormal ones show what tumours, disc disease, and inflammation do to it in period practice.
The atlas is organised around images and the captions that interpret them. Normal examinations introduce the thecal sac, nerve root sleeves, conus medullaris, and cauda equina, so that later deviations have something to be measured against. Case examples then take up extradural defects from disc disease, displacement caused by extramedullary tumours, intramedullary lesions, and inflammatory or developmental abnormalities. Captions tie the appearance to clinical context and to the diagnostic reasoning of the time. Because it documents 1948 technique, the book is valuable both as an anatomy lesson and as a record of what spinal imaging could and could not establish before later methods arrived.
The normal myelogram is treated as a reference text. Structures are named as they appear in the contrast column, and the reader is trained to recognise their expected position and contour. This visual vocabulary comes first because every pathological claim later depends on knowing what normal looks like in the same view.
The sac, the root sleeves, the conus, and the cauda equina are described as related parts of one space. The text shows how contrast reveals their outline and how each structure sits in relation to the others. Understanding that arrangement is what allows a reader to say where a lesion must be.
Herniated discs produce defects that press on the contrast column from outside. The atlas shows how such impressions appear and how their position points toward a level. The reasoning is spatial: an indentation from without implies a cause outside the sac, and the caption follows that implication to a clinical explanation.
Tumours outside the cord displace rather than invade the contrast column. The text describes the patterns of displacement and how they differ from the defects produced by disc material. Distinguishing the two matters because similar-looking impressions carry different meanings, and the atlas makes that contrast visible side by side.
Lesions within the cord widen it and alter the contrast pattern from inside. The atlas presents these cases as a distinct category, with appearances that differ from masses pressing from outside. The reader learns to ask whether a change originates within the cord or at its margin, a question that organises much of the diagnostic work.
Not every abnormal myelogram is a tumour or a disc. Inflammatory processes and developmental abnormalities are included to show the range of appearances a reader might encounter. The captions explain how these were separated from growths and disc disease at a time when the image carried most of the diagnostic weight.
Radiologists interested in the history of spinal imaging, medical historians, and readers studying how clinical neuroradiology developed in the years before cross-sectional scanning became routine.
Edition, audience, and study-guide details at a glance.
An Atlas of Myelography presents spinal contrast imaging as practiced in 1948 through annotated cases and radiographic examples. Ernest H. Wood, Jr. examines normal anatomy and appearances associated with tumors, disc disease, inflammation, and congenital abnormalities. The atlas is suited to historical research on spinal imaging and neurological diagnosis.
Radiologists interested in the history of spinal imaging, medical historians, and readers studying how clinical neuroradiology developed in the years before cross-sectional scanning became routine.
Yes. This page includes an original study guide with six thematic sections, key takeaways, and a topic map for structured reading.
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