To achieve a symposium on spinal injuries which rises above the conventional entails thought. To avoid repetition of the overworked "team approach" requires restraint. To convert the material into a monograph demands skill. The organizing committee of this symposium has done all three.
The first section, discussing anatomy and physiology, contains four papers. A study of the arterial supply, based upon 18 spinal cords, will fail to satisfy anatomists because the author injects fixed specimens. A review of current neurophysiological concepts of the isolated spinal cord considers the role of gamma motor neurons and the Renshaw cell; current references enhance its value. Bors, one of two American participants, discusses phantom limbs in patients with spinal cord injury. Complete with case histories and literature review, this paper will endure as a classic reference. The succeeding paper, also by Bors, considers two questions: what mechanism opens the vesical neck, and what role