Abstract Ideas concerning the nature of multiple sclerosis continue to be strongly influenced
by the unusual morphology of the disease. A review of classic histology studies, however,
reveals that there is less agreement than might be supposed concerning several important
histological features of the early lesion. Electron microscopy of brain biopsies, of immersion
fixed autopsy tissue and of autopsy tissue fixed by early in situ brain perfusion suggests that
the mechanism of demyelination in multiple sclerosis may be an unusual one that involves a …