Joint affections in tabes dorsalis

IN 1 8 6 8 Charcot called attention to, and described carefully, the peculiar clinical picture which was presented by certain joint lesions occurring in the course of tabes dorsalis.H e described four cases, and compared them with those arthropathies observed by Weir Mitchell, Keen, and others, due to lesions of the cord, and concluded, as a result of his study, that these tabetic arthropathies were due to the lesion of the nervous system, and were peculiar to the disease in which they occurred.His accurate clinical picture led to the recognition of many other cases, and his first communication was rapidly followed by those of Ball and of Hervey in 1868, and later by other papers by Charcot himself, Lionville, LBpine, Blum, and many others.In England cases were quickly recognised, and in 1869 Allbutt reported the first case described in an English publication.He was followed by Buzzard in 1 8 7 4 and Thompson in 1877.After Charcot's visit to England in 1881, and his address a t the International Congress in London in that year, much interest was manifested and many interesting cases were reported.This led up to the protracted but inconclusive discussions before the Clinical Society on 23rd December 1884, and succeeding dates.I n Germany but little interest was shown until the presentation of cases and the discussions before the Berlin Medical Society on 17th November 1885, and before the Surgical Congress of the same year.Cases had, however, been previously reported by Ponfick in 187 2, by Mossdorf in 1878, and by others.These discussions, like those which occurred before the Socidth d'anatomique in Paris, led to no conclusion as to the anatomical characters or the etiology of the affection, which have been the study of many subsequent writers.Many important papers have been published in France and in Germany, of which the careful paper of Rotter (1 8 87) and the important study of Biidinger (1 8 9 6) deserve mention.Pansini in 1896, as the result of studies in Paris, published a very exhaustive paper with a review of the literature.Unfortunately as yet no uniformity of result has been achieved, and the questions of 15.--.1~.