Much controversy has been spent on the question of the share of syphilis in producing tabes, and out of the battle but two facts emerge fairly certain, the one that syphilis often precedes the disease, the other that anti-syphilitic medication is commonly of no service. But syphilis is so frequently antecedent that a history of that infection may make certain the diagnosis when doubt exists. This may be an important point, for some of the cardinal symptoms are occasionally absent; cases are seen with no incoördination, sometimes with the station unaffected, even, though rarely, with the knee-jerk preserved. The diagnosis established, treatment will somewhat depend upon the stage which the disease has reached. In the pre-ataxic stage, where slight unsteadiness, often not troublesome except in the dark or with closed eyes, sharp stabbing pains here and there, numbness of the feet, girdle-sense in the region of chest, waist, or belly, some recurrent difficulty in emptying the bladder, a fugitive partial palsy of the external muscles of the eye, are the chief or, perhaps, the only complaints, it would not be justifiable to put the patient to bed at complete rest. This early stage calls for a different plan of treatment, to be presently described. In the middle or more distinctly ataxic period long rest in bed should be prescribed, and will be gratefully accepted by a patient whose sufferings from incoördination, pains, and numbness of the extremities are often so great as to incapacitate him. The bladder muscles share in the ataxia, and the consequent retention of urine frequently causes cystitis, and may endanger life by the involvement of the kidneys. The bowels cannot be emptied or are moved without the patient's knowledge, and these annoyances combine with the pain and nervous apprehension to drive the victim into a melancholic or neurasthenic state. He suffers, too, from want of occupation, from the absence of exercise, from the anticipation of worse changes in the near future, and usually by the time he reaches the specialist has been more or less poisoned with iodide of potash and mercury, and perhaps with morphia. In the third, the paralytic stage, which seldom comes on until the symptoms have lasted for years, there is gradual loss of power and ataxia, increasing until he is totally unable to walk. If a patient is not seen until this condition of things has been reached, but little can be hoped from any treatment, though in a few cases energetic measures may bring about a marked improvement, which is rarely lasting. A combination of tabes with lateral sclerosis, or with general paralysis of the insane, is sometimes seen, but needs no special consideration.