Nerve sheath tumours and von Recklinghausen's disease of the nervous system.

THE NOMENCLATURE OF tumours of nerve sheath presents, at first sight, a confused picture. Many terms that are used have sprung from varying views of their nature and mode of origin over the years. The word neuroma was introduced as a comprehensive term by Odier in 1803. In 1829, William Woods in a classical treatise had already suggested that tumours of nerve arose from their sheaths. In the same year, Barkow distinguished between local and general neuromas and in 1849 Robert Smith favoured their subdivision into those of spontaneous appearance and those resulting from injury. In 1863 Virchow proposed that neuromas be called " true " or " false " according to whether they arose from the nerve fibres themselves or from the sheaths of the fibres.