Section through the spinal cord (from levels C.5, Th.6 and L.4) from a patient suffering from tabes dorsalis. They show almost complete degeneration of both posterior column tracts on either side (tracts of Goll and Burdach). The usual signs and symptoms of this disease include loss of sense of position and passive movement, of tactile discrimination and localization, and of vibration sense. The motor tracts are unaffected, and thus there would be no actual paralysis of the voluntary musculature.

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