English

Noun

tabes dorsalis ‎(plural tabes dorsales)

1. (pathology) A degeneration of the sensory neurons of the spinal cord carrying afferent information.
   • 1970, JG Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition:

     Malcolm X: the death of terminal fibrillation, as elegant as the trembling of hands in tabes dorsalis [...].

   • 1984, Oliver Sacks, “The Disembodied Lady”, chapter 3 in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Reset 2007), page 51:

     [I told her] of patients with neurosyphilis, tabes dorsalis, who had similar symptoms, but confined to the legs.

Translations