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SEVEN FIGURESPrior to the year 1894, investigators paid scant attention to the wide variations in the level of termination of the spinal cord. Nuhn (1849), Pfitzner (1884) and Reid (1889) studied the lengths of individual segments of the spinal cord in a small number of specimens, for the purpose of demonstrating the extent of recession of the spinal cord during body-growth, and of affording a basis for determining the position of cord segments in relation to surface landmarks. Only occasional mention was made of departure from the accepted level of termination, namely, the first and second lumbar vertebrae.Thompson and associates (1894), McCotter ( '16) and Needles ('35) made the chief contributions to present-day knowledge of termination of the spinal cord. The site of vertebral termination, according to these investigators, varies between the middle of the twelfth thoracic and the lower third of the third lumbar ; in approximately one-half of their cases the cord terminated in the vertebrgl thirds adjacent to the intervertebral disc between the first and second lumbar vertebrae. It was recognized that there is a tendency for the spinal cord in females to end at a lower level than in males.

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