Although much has been written concerning the pathology of tabes, and particularly the causes underlying the degeneration of the posterior root fibers, writers are not yet in complete accord in their conception of the exact manner in which this degeneration takes place. Certain advances in our knowledge of this disease would warrant a reopening of the question. The importance of considering the disease as an active syphilitic one, the refinements of diagnosis by examination of the cerebrospinal fluid and the propriety of certain methods of local intraspinous medication would stimulate an inquiry into a more exact knowledge of the manner in which the spirocheta ultimately, and after a considerable lapse of time as a rule, causes a degeneration of the nervous parenchyma.
In 1917, I1 published an article on the "Early Diagnosis of Tabes," and stated among other conclusions that: "In tabes the syphilitic posterior leptomeningitis of the spinal