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E SSE N T IAL E F F E C TS
Water, Fire, Wind, and More
E SSE N T IAL E F F E C TS
Water, Fire, Wind, and More

by

MAURO MARESSA
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-10107-4 (Paperback)

978-1-138-19692-6 (Hardback)

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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

Names: Maressa, Mauro, author.

Title: Essential effects : water, fire, wind, and more / Mauro Maressa.
Description: Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, a CRC title, part of the Taylor & Francis
imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group, the academic
division of T&F Informa, plc, [2017]
Identifiers: LCCN 2017004029| ISBN 9781138196926 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138101074 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Computer animation. | Physical geography--Computer
simulation. | Cinematography--Special effects.
Classification: LCC TR897.7 .M3747 2017 | DDC 777/.7--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017004029

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 For my family,
without whose love and support
none of this would have been
possible, especially Cindy!
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Chapter 1: A History of Effects in Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2: What Exactly Is a Traditionally Animated Effect? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 3: What Does It Take to Become an Effects Animator? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 4: Thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 5: Caricaturing of an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Chapter 6: Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 7: Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Chapter 8: Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 9: Smoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Chapter 10: Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter 11: Tones, Shadows, and Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Chapter 12: Rocks, Props, and Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Chapter 13: Trees, Leaves, and Grass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Chapter 14: Pixie Dust, Mattes, and Slot Gags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Chapter 15: Fantasy Effects and Ectoplasm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Chapter 16: Lava and Mud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Chapter 17: Lightning and Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Chapter 18: Explosions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Chapter 19: Fire Hoses and Faucets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Chapter 20: Straight Ahead and Pose to Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Chapter 21: Bouncing Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Chapter 22: Exposure Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

vii
Foreword
I am very honored to have been asked to write this foreword to Mauro’s book on
traditional effects in animation. I was fortunate to have had Mauro come to work with
me at my studio back in the late eighties and early nineties. He added class to the
commercials we produced and raised the quality level above most commercials being
done back then. I was always thrilled at what he added to our work. When you read
about the golden age of animation, when they started taking effects animation seriously,
making it a special department at the Disney studio, you realize that the research that
went into the development of the different effects was astounding. Mauro would think
and attack individual problems on a project with the same attention to detail, and his
work showed it.

Personally, I’ve always been in awe of animated effects, probably because I have no idea
how they do it. I’m a character animator by trade and I’m always amazed that when an
animated film does well, it’s the lead character animators who are interviewed about
their part in the film. Being a character animator, you’d think I’d be okay with that. But
throughout my entire career I have admired everyone behind the scenes, all the unsung
heroes of these films. If it wasn’t for the visual development people, the layout people,
the voice talent, and so many others, I wouldn’t have had a stage to perform on or a voice
to inspire me. But it’s the effects animators who create the surrounding elements of the
world of the film and bring it to life. Traditional effects animators don’t copy reality, as is
often the case with computer animation today; they capture the essence of what we feel
when we see water or flames or smoke. They create effects as a design that audiences
accept readily, an impression of these elements. Effects, sometimes, become characters
themselves.

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston expressed this quite well in their book The Illusion of
Life when they said, “The Effects Animator is a special kind of artist: he has a curiosity
about the way things work, a feel for the mechanical, and usually sees great beauty in
the patterns of nature … creating spirit in the movement of water and lava, drama in fires
and storms, and astonishing loveliness in the handling of falling leaves and snow.” In the
hands of someone like Mauro, when the characters of Pacha and Kuzco fall into the water
in The Emperor’s New Groove, as stylized as the water is, you feel wet. Their work feels
seamless; it doesn’t jump out at you as the main feature of the scene but enhances it.
Effects animators like Mauro know when it should be in the background, or when it should
be the main focus but always supporting the scene, so that we tend to take their work for
granted, as perhaps we should.

In CG animation, we are able to create effects that seem more real than reality, making it
very well suited for a live-action movie. Unfortunately, CG effects often do not relate well
to the character animation. By contrast, in traditionally animated films everything fits like
a glove, a perfect design. At my studio, I was so fortunate to have talented people, the
right people, and one of them was Mauro. When you look at Mauro’s accomplishments
in this business and in art in general, it’s impressive: from teaching his craft to being an
effects animator as well as a character animator, both in traditional 2D and his work with
computer animation in live-action films, as well as being an incredible sculptor. It’s a body
of work that reflects Mauro’s love of art and it shows in everything he does. Plus he’s a joy
to work with.

ix
With all of the books on animation that have been written over the years, I’m surprised
that there hasn’t been more done solely on effects animation, so all I can say is, “It’s about
time!” But this book was well worth waiting for, because it is literally a gift from one of the
industry’s most talented artists. Study it well and help continue an incredible legacy of
animated effects, started by some of the legendary effects animators in the business.

Dale Baer
Disney Animation
Supervising Animator

x
Preface
As a traditional effects animator, in order to animate, I need to use all the resources
available to me. I draw with my right hand, which I call the artist. I use my left, which I call
the technology, to flip and roll my animation drawings. If I use only my right hand, it may
result in a nice drawing and potentially a great standalone piece of art. If I only use my left
hand to flip the drawing I will end up with a very wrinkled piece of paper. The brain is in the
middle to reason out timing, volumes, composition, arcs, action, design, and so on. In order
for me to animate properly, I need all the resources available to me to work in unison. While
my hands do the physical work, it is my mind that needs to recall the stored information
that I have accumulated through study and observation. Without that stored information,
you are going to be stumbling along hoping you’re going in the right direction. The rolling
of the animation drawings is my playback machine, which allows me to view the action
of my animation four to five drawings at a time. Today’s technology allows us to animate
in a computer, but we are missing the direct physical connection with the drawing. That
tangible association is what I miss most. The network that is the brain to hand to paper,
the direct current of creating a piece of animation from my mind through my hand to the
paper, is a joy I can’t imagine not experiencing. That’s why I think the use of a stylus on
a tablet is more palpable to me. While the computer is an incredible tool, I have to use a
number of commands for it to do what I want it to do, and then I may have to go to another
program and another set of commands to continue to create my animation. I guess I just
don’t have the mindset. I envy how some people can use the computer and their amazing
accomplishments. It’s a tool that I would encourage every artist to learn how to use. But
remember that the tool does not dictate the art! It is the artist who must incorporate his
tools with his art, be they a pencil or a computer.

What I hope to impart to you in this book is a series of basics lessons and examples on which
you can build a foundation for animating effects. These are techniques that a tech-savvy
animator can also use and really should know and use in his or her animation. When I’m
teaching, I try to get my students to understand that in order to build a strong foundation
for a career in effects animation, you must pay attention to basics. You want a strong
foundation when you build a house so that it will stand for a long time. You don’t want to
build a career that flounders and collapses. Too often I’ve seen young animators who want
to step in and animate the most complex of scenes and who get frustrated when they
have to do things over and over again without reaching the desired results simply because
their process and techniques fall short from lack of a basic understanding of how things
work or physical theory. While I can admire their desire and passion to jump in and attack a
challenge, I can’t help but shake my head at their unwillingness to work at learning all they
need to, so that they can attempt to combine all the little intricacies that make up the more
elaborate and complex ones.

There is a certain poetry of sorts in animating effects. The ebb and flow of a design within
the context of an environment created in a film. The way water flows and smoke rises to the
sky or is specifically designed for that environment that lets the viewers accept the veracity
of the scene without hitting them over the head with the effects. I have often said to people
who want to know what I did in a film, “If I do my job right you will never notice what I did,
but if I muck it up, it may take the viewer out of the picture and disturb the flow of the
storyline!”

An effects animator’s job is not to lead the storytelling but to accompany it and help
the story move forward. An effect may frame the mood of the character or his or her
surroundings (see Figure P.1).

xi
 FIG P.1 Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: firelight.

At times the effect may make a statement to emphasize a climactic moment (see Figure P.2).

FIG P.2 Disney’s Pinocchio: Monstro ocean wave.

More often than not, the effects are a minor character, often playing a minor role, that
accompanies the characters through their journey in the film. It is a specialized field within
the specialized media of animation. It has been an incredible experience for me that has been
both gratifying and rewarding in more ways than I can say. Animation has been a joy for me.
I would jump out of bed every morning eager to start my day. Imagine, they paid me a salary
to draw all day and make a living doing it and to work with some of the most interesting and
talented people I have ever known! Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of hard work and can be
grueling and repetitive at times, but it has also been greatly satisfying and worth the hard
work. I’ll wager that anyone you ask about their animation careers will say the same thing. It
has been a tremendous journey that I don’t foresee ending for me any time soon in the future.
All that I have learned along the way has and will still help me in whatever new challenges I
may encounter in my later years. I’m certain you will feel the same way about it.

xii
Introduction
I was born in Italy and moved to the United States with my family in 1959. My father
preceded my mother and the three children by 3 years, establishing himself before having
the rest of us come join him. We moved to Milford, Massachusetts, where my brother and
sister and I grew up. My father worked as a tailor for a couple of different companies, while
my mother worked as a seamstress. After a few years, they had saved enough to buy a house
with a storefront, from which they operated their tailor shop until their retirement in the
late 1980s. My brother showed promise as a fashion designer, and after attending school in
Boston and New York became successful in that profession until his sudden and untimely
death in 1999. My younger sister attended college and later on would marry and have two
children. After high school, I went to art school and studied fine arts at the New England
School of Art in Boston and then went on to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to
get my BFA.

I started teaching art in the Milford school system that year. It was the same year I would
meet my future wife, Cynthia. We got married 2 years later and decided that, since I had
the summers off from teaching, it would be great to take a cross-country trip for our
honeymoon. So we drove through 36 states in our van. Along the way, as we drove through
Los Angeles, because I was a big fan of Disney I decided to try my luck at the studio in
Burbank. I didn’t think anything of it at that time, but something like that is not possible
today. I parked on the street across from the main entrance and walked to the security
offices, where I asked if I could get an interview for the animation department. The nice
lady instructed me to have a seat, and 20 minutes later I was interviewed by a nice gray-
haired man who looked at my portfolio and was very positive. Knowing that I lived in
Massachusetts, he told me that if I ever decided to move to Los Angeles I should try the
studio again. When I got back to the van and Cindy waiting patiently inside, I told her about
the interview and discussed the possibility of moving to Los Angeles for the rest of the trip
home. We moved to Los Angeles 6 months later!

We got settled in and Cindy was able to find work at a department store. It was a bit of
luck that Cindy happened to mention to one of her coworker friends that I was applying
for work at Disney. Her friend, Betty, was an older lady who happened to have a friend that
worked at Disney and asked if I would like to meet him. She invited us to a dinner party at
her house about a week later where I met Donald “Don” Duckwall. He was a very gracious
man and asked me if I would like to have a tour at the studio and to be sure to bring my
portfolio with me. I met with Don the following week at the studio, and he gave me a tour of
the animation building on the main lot. One of the people he introduced me to on the tour
was Eric Larson. Eric was one of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men” and was head of the training
program there. I had never met a nicer, gentler, and more unassuming man in all my life.
He looked at my portfolio and made some comments about the work but said that after
6 months in animation I would probably see a marked improvement in my drawings and
how I posed my characters. He asked whether I would like to enter the animation training
program. I had no idea what I was doing and only had an inkling of how animation was
produced, but I loved the films and wanted to be involved in the making of them. Of course
I jumped at the opportunity and started studying under Eric’s patient tutelage in April.
My two animation tests went well, but I fell victim to layoff due to the end of production on
“The Small One,” a short film done by Don Bluth at the studio at the time. There was no need
to keep a newcomer like me while they were gearing up on their next film, especially when
they had experienced artists already! I soon learned that layoffs are a common occurrence
in the animation industry and animators would just pick up and move on to the next job.

xiii
Don Duckwall came in to tell me the news and informed me that he had called Harry Love,
who was looking for artists at Hanna-Barbera.

So I went to work at Hanna-Barbera and was there for the next 3 years. I started out as an
assistant animator, and my job would be to follow up on the work of the seasoned animators
working on such Saturday morning cartoons as Godzilla, SuperFriends, Fred and Barney,
The Smurfs, and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. It was an incredible learning experience for
me and indeed for all of us young animators who were in the early stages of our careers
and soon to go on to be a part of the renaissance of traditional animation of the late 1980s
throughout the 1990s! We all worked under the mentorship of animators who had started
their careers in the 1930s and were still going strong, animators like Irv Spence, Hal Ambro,
Volus Jones, Ken Muse, Ed Barge, Dave Tendlar, Ed Aardal, Oliver “Lefty” Callahan, Charlie
Downs, Rudi Cataldi, and so many others. They were animators who all started working at
such studios as MGM, Disney, Fleischer, and UPA, and all had notable careers. My immediate
supervisors were Bill Kile and Bob Goe. After settling in at Hanna-Barbera, I kept going to
Bill and Bob for test animation assignments that I could work on at home in the evenings,
which they would then look at and critique. I had set up a rig on my drawing desk at home
with a hole cut in the center and a piece of Plexiglas with floating pegs for my animation
paper. I did this for the next 6–7 months almost every night, working on animation of people
and animal characters from the shows we were working on at the studio that Bill or Bob
would make up for me until Bill surprised me one day and gave me a production scene to
work on. It was on SuperFriends and it was a character riding a metal horse crossing railroad
tracks and getting stuck in the tracks. After that Bill would give me a scene to work on
regularly until he promoted me to animator (see Figure I.1).

FIG I.1 Me as an apprentice animator at Hanna-Barbera, 1979. Photo by Lyn J. Kroeger.

Hanna-Barbera began working on an animation feature called Heidi’s Song, and Bob Taylor
would be the director. Bob gave me the opportunity to come work on that feature, and
I worked closely under Hal Ambro, Irv Spence, and Charlie Downs as well as regularly
talking with other people, whom I was constantly asking for pointers. All the animators at
the studio animated their characters as well as any effects that might be part of those scenes.

xiv
Bob Taylor directed me to Ed Aardal one day when I got a scene that had a lot of effects in it.
Ed was an old-time animator who started working as a character and effects animator at
Disney in 1939. Ed was a great and patient teacher and spent many hours teaching me about
effects. I suddenly started excelling at doing effects. So I got to work on a lot more scenes
that had both characters and effects! Charlie Downs broke his wrists while roller skating one
day and was not able to work for a while. He recommended that I take over working on some
of his scenes of the Man Mountain character in the film and was given a great opportunity
(see Figure I.2).

FIG I.2 Nightmare Mountain from the dream sequence in Heidi’s Song.

While we were working on Heidi’s Song at Hanna-Barbera, I picked up freelance work from
Heavy Metal: The Movie. I was part of the L.A. crew that worked on the “Taarna” sequence of
that picture in 1980. After completing Heidi’s Song, we started on preproduction work for
another feature at Hanna-Barbera, but in 1981 I got the opportunity to go to work for Ralph
Bakshi on his feature Fire and Ice. The idea of working alongside with Frank Frazetta was
a chance I could not pass up, so I left Hanna-Barbera. I worked on many of the characters
in Fire and Ice, but the last 2 weeks of that project had me working on the destruction of
Nekron’s fortress and the lava sequence. I animated all the lava by using grease pencil on
clear celluloid sheets in order to expedite the process, avoiding the Xerox process and going
to ink and paint directly, where all they had to do was paint the cels (see Figure I.3).

FIG I.3 Bakshi’s Fire and Ice: lava pouring down a chasm.

After Fire and Ice, I returned to Disney as an effects animator on the Tokyo Disneyland
pavilion called “Meet the World” and later went on to The Black Cauldron as an assistant

xv
character animator where I got to work alongside my old pal from Hanna-Barbera, Charlie
Downs, once again working on a lot of henchmen and incidental characters.

I chose to leave Disney after that film in 1985 to start a new phase in my career, that of
working in live-action special effects. While Boss Film Corp. was gearing up for their next film,
Poltergeist II, I spent a few months at Filmation Studios in the interim working on He-Man,
She-Ra: Princess of Power, and Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. Then I started working at
Boss, which was a live-action special effects studio headed up by multi-Oscar-winning special
effects wizard Richard Edlund, ASC. I worked off and on for Boss over the next 8 years on a
number of films: Poltergeist II, The Monster Squad, Big Trouble in Little China, and Solarbabies
and as animation supervisor for Far and Away, Solar Crisis, Batman Returns, and Alien 3. In that
same period of time, I also worked at another live-action effects house called Perpetual
Motion Picture with Barry Nolan on Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and served as animation
supervisor on Warlock then as well.

I returned to traditional animation in 1992 at Baer Animation Studios, working with animator
Dale Baer and his small group of hard-working and talented artists. We worked on a number
of commercials and Disney’s The Prince and the Pauper, which was outsourced to Baer
Studios at the time. I then returned to Disney again in February of 1993 to start animating
effects on Pocahontas. As that film was not yet ready for a full crew, I was put on the “B”
picture called The Lion King. Everyone was anxious to work on Pocahontas at the time, as
that was supposed to be the next blockbuster. No one thought that The Lion King would
amount to much since it was about a bunch of cute animal characters and would not appeal
to many people! 6 or 7 months into production, the crew was invited into the screening
room to see the trailer that would be released soon to advertise The Lion King. That was the
opening sequence of the film! Needless to say, everyone walked out of that screening room
20 minutes later with a renewed sense of energy that lifted the spirits of the entire studio.
We all knew we had a hit on our hands! The Lion King was a great success and that creative
energy carried over to Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Even though these
films would not be as successful as The Lion King, the quality and the artistry on all the films
that followed was magnificent! The artists excelled at every level of production.

At this time, Disney Feature Animation was riding a wave of hits, so the studio built a
brand-new facility for the Animation Department that would be located next to the main
studio in Burbank. A few of us in the Effects Department were some of the first to move
into the new building. This was around the time we were working on The Hunchback of
Notre Dame. The studio had two other feature animation units as well as the Burbank main
studio. One was in Orlando, Florida, and one in Paris, France. I was fortunate to get the
opportunity to visit each of these studios over a 1 year period to help in the training of
the effects departments in each of those studios. They needed very little training, as the
artists in both studios were very good.

Both would play an integral part in the production of the LA-based studio productions,
and the Florida studio would soon produce two great films of their own: Lilo and Stitch
and Brother Bear. While in Paris, I was asked to join a group of artists from LA on a quick
recruiting tour in London and Dublin led by Roy E. Disney. Roy was a true friend and
champion of the Animation Department and the main reason animation at the studio
survived after Michael Eisner and company came to power at the studio in 1985. At that
time, there was serious talk of dismantling the Feature Animation Department, but Roy
would have none of that and fought to keep it a viable entity at Disney. He was to be
rewarded by seeing the great success that feature animation would have in the 1980s
through the 1990s and into the twenty-first century. But the artists were moved from
the original animation building that Walt had built and made so many great films in. So,
Animation was moved, lock, stock, and barrel, to some warehouses in Glendale a few miles
away from the main studio. And it then produced some of the most memorable modern-
day animated film classics!

xvi
I was in my hotel room in London one evening getting ready to return to Paris and then a
week later to return to LA. I received a phone call from Alice Dewey, the producer of the
next film scheduled to be released after Pocahontas, called Hercules, which Ron Clemens and
John Musker were to direct after the great success of their last film, Aladdin. Alice asked if I
would be interested in heading up the Effects Department on that film. I gave it a great deal
of thought and pondered all the possibilities of such a task that would be awaiting me and
after an intense 2 seconds, I said yes!

I began work on Hercules as soon as I returned to the studio in Burbank. There was already
a group of effects animators working on designs for the film. So it wasn’t long before the
art director and directors picked the look they liked for the effects on the film. With the
complexity of the design of the water, smoke, fire, and the sheer volume of the number of
effects that needed to be done, we needed help from our friends and colleagues in scene
planning to fashion techniques to alleviate some of the pressure. Hercules was an extremely
heavy-effects movie. We not only had a large crew in the Burbank studio but the effects
departments in Florida and Paris were also helping us as well. This was true for the other
departments on the film, and credit must be given to the coordinated efforts of all the
people whose job was to keep track of the hundreds of scenes and thousands of animation
drawings. Throughout the production, I found myself repeating, “We’re going to need a
bigger boat!” Such was the volume of work pouring into the department. But I had a great
team of animators and assistants that made it all look easy!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the key animators on my crew, Dorse Lanpher.
Dorse was a calming element within the vortex of that production and a great sounding
board for me. He had started his animation career in the 1950s at Disney and had
experienced and seen just about all there was to see. I was very fortunate to have him as one
of my animators and a friend. His astuteness and advice helped me through some rough
times in dealing with personalities and the rigors of production. I will be eternally grateful to
him. Sadly Dorse passed away in his home in 2011, several years after his retirement, leaving
a great many of us that had worked alongside him very sad. He was a mentor to many of us
who worked with him and has been sorely missed by us all.

Another key member in the Effects Department was our assistant production manager,
Kim Gray. She was an incredibly efficient manager and a great cheerleader who kept
things constantly moving forward. The fact that we had crews working in three different
time zones, on two continents, and it all fell neatly into place every week was due to the
collaborative efforts of a lot of people, and it was good to know you could always depend
on everyone knowing their job and carrying it out efficiently. I’m very proud of the people I
worked with on my crew and what a great job they all did on a film I am extremely proud of!
In 1997, I was honored to receive an Annie Award from ASIFA for my work on Hercules and it
would not have been possible without the concerted effort of that marvelous crew I had the
pleasure of working with!

My next film was to be called Kingdom of the Sun—this would eventually become
The Emperor’s New Groove after several rewrites. The artistic leads were sent to research
the Inca-based story line. We spent 2 weeks traveling around Peru taking in as much of the
culture as possible, then returned to LA and started on the production. The original story
was going to be much more ambitious. The original concept of the director, Roger Allers
(The Lion King), was a bit darker and more mystical story with plenty of special effects. The
story went through a rewrite (a common occurrence in the animation world) and a change
of leadership. It’s a story documented in a film called Sweatbox, done by Trudie Styler, wife of
the singer–songwriter Sting who was doing the music for Kingdom. The effects crew ended
up being considerably smaller than originally thought.

While we all waited for the story changes, our crew ended up being loaned out to other
projects in the works. I, along with a small group of animators and assistants, worked on the

xvii
sequence of Fantasia 2000 called “Rhapsody in Blue” directed by Eric Goldberg (Pocahontas).
This was a very simple and highly stylized-looking film with the clean line look of Al
Hirschfeld, the great caricaturist of Broadway stars and many other celebrities. When we
finally got back on our film, it was now called The Emperor’s New Groove and was more of a
comedy. Under the new Director, Mark Dindal (Cats Don't Dance), the production went into
high gear and was finished in time to meet the scheduled release date that had been set for
the original Kingdom film—a tribute to Mark’s leadership.

My first foray into digitally animated features was Chicken Little, again working with Mark
Dindal. I started out designing the effects and then later animating effects. I mostly
animated cars and spaceships in Maya® for that film. My effects designs were for reference
for the digital animators and programmers to try and emulate the digital effects into the
more cartoony look the director wanted for the film, which they did quite successfully. The
second digitally animated film I worked on was Meet the Robinsons and on this film my role
was purely as an animator, mostly props and vehicles and a bit of elemental effects (and
bubbles).

Around this time, it was clear that the studio was going 100% digital. Although there had
been massive layoffs a few years before after the traditionally animated feature Home on the
Range in 2004, a great many more were laid off in 2007, and I was one of them. I returned
about 9 months later to work on what would be the last two-dimensional traditionally
animated feature that Disney would do to this date, The Princess and the Frog. The great part
of working on Princess was that we worked on Cintiq® tablets with styluses and produced
our effects on the tablets. We were able to do our own manipulation of the effects using the
Toon Boom Harmony program, so that we were able to hand over a nearly finished effects
element to color model. The art director could then make his final tweaks with a minimum
of effort as the basics of the elements were already blocked out, allowing the art director to
concentrate on the fine-tuning of the effects to his liking.

I now teach traditional character animation and effects animation at Otis College of Art and
Design in Los Angeles and do some work on independently produced traditional animated
films, TV shows, and commercials, as well as my personal artwork.

xviii
 CHAPTER 1

A History of Effects in Animation

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,
for going out, I found, I was really going in.
—John Muir

Early on in animation, the animators did all their own effects as well as the character
animation that may have been called for in the scenes they were working on. Often, the
effects were more or less an afterthought to the gags the characters were acting out.
Therefore the effects were usually haphazard and simplistic interpretations of the particular
effect. Water was a flat mass with possibly some lines in it to indicate a directional flow that
broke up like bits of torn paper when it hit a character. Smoke was a cycle of round shapes
rising upward or covering the screen, the simplest and most elementary of designs. This
was not a slight on the part of character animators. During the silent era, animators were
cranking out one film per week. This left very little time for study or experimentation for
improving the quality of effects in those shorts. The effects were done simply to convey the
idea of fire, or water, or smoke, or whatever the gag called for, and the effect was usually
on the same level as the characters, so there was very little chance of utilizing any camera
effects, like diffusion or opacity.

Some of the very first drawn animation that I have found was on short films done by
J. Stuart Blackton, considered by some to be the father of American animation. Blackton
was producing animated sequences as early as 1900. These films were distributed by the
Edison Studios. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces was released in 1906. Blackton used chalk
on a blackboard smudged to make smoke “effects,” the earliest hand-drawn “animated
effect” on film that I have found (see Figure 1.1).

1
Essential Effects: Water, Fire, Wind, and More

FIG 1.1 J. Stuart Blackton’s Humorous Phases of Funny Faces.

Another early pioneer was Emile Cohl, who in 1908 produced Fantasmagorie, which had stick
figures morphing into other figures. This has been credited as the first fully animated film.
Camera effects started getting more creative (see Figure 1.2).

FIG 1.2 Emile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie.

Windsor McCay produced perhaps his most famous film in 1914, Gertie the Dinosaur. But
he also produced The Sinking of the Lusitania in 1918. The effects that McCay was able to
imagine and achieve are, in my opinion, the best that had been done at the time—they
would not be matched until the mid- to late-1930s. He truly was head and shoulders ahead
of everyone else at the time (see Figure 1.3).

2
 A History of Effects in Animation

FIG 1.3 Windsor McCay’s The Sinking of the Lusitania.

A typical animation desk setup was used in the early days of the animation process until
the early 1920s. Windsor McCay set up his animation process like this, using tracing paper
and transparent bond, so he could trace his backgrounds with each succeeding drawing
(see Figure 1.4). Two holes punched in the paper would hold the paper in place, while the
cross marks on the four corners were used to make certain all the drawings would line
up as you animated each of the successive ones. You could use one method or the other,
or both at once.

FIG 1.4 Windsor McCay’s animation setup.

Meanwhile, within the industry there were advances in the way animation was being
handled that advanced the medium. A French Canadian by the name of Raoul Barré and his
partner Bill Nolan introduced the “peg” system. This would make it possible to register all
drawings in exact alignment with each preceding and succeeding drawing, eliminating any
shaking or giggling. The Barré–Nolan team also developed the long horizontal and vertical
backgrounds. This would give the characters more freedom to move about the scenes
without the need to trace the backgrounds onto each of the character drawings. It made
it possible to use multiple layers of animated subjects and to incorporate effects in ways
previously not possible, along with the introduction of the “cel system,” attributed to John
Randolph Bray and Earl Hurd, who patented the process in 1914. (The cel system consisted
of clear celluloid sheets onto which drawings were traced on the front in ink and later
painted on the back, filling in the interiors of the silhouetted characters.) Bray is also
credited with the system for breaking down the work—the assembly line, if you will, of the
layout department, background, animator, assistant, and so on. These innovations, along

3
Essential Effects: Water, Fire, Wind, and More

with the invention of the glass disk in the center of the animator’s drawing board by Vernon
George Stallings in the 1920s, further advanced the creative possibilities for animators.
Now they could use a back light to see multiple levels at once and get precise one-to-one
registration between characters as well as the effects around them (see Figure 1.5).

FIG 1.5 1920s animation desk with glass disk and box light.

After further innovations to the animation disk, it evolved into the more familiar-
looking round disk that the animator could turn and adjust for a more comfortable
drawing position. The animation disk had only top pegs until the mid- to late 1930s;
the addition of bottom pegs came later and gave the animators the ability to plot
pans (see Figures 1.6 and 1.7).

FIG 1.6 More familiar disk with top and bottom pegs.

4
 A History of Effects in Animation

FIG 1.7 My modern-day animation desk at Disney.

Animation started to rise to greater heights during the golden age of animation, roughly
1928–1967. Not only did the process get more sophisticated but also the stories got more
complex in the telling and the visuals got more intricate. As the character animation became
more sophisticated, the effects needed to rise to the occasion if they were to look and feel as if
they belonged in the same environment as the characters, in order for the audience to believe
that both effects and characters lived in the same environment. Otherwise the contrast would
confuse the viewer and undermine the storytelling. In the mid- to late 1930s, a few effects
specialists rose out of the character animation ranks. It was the Fleischer Studios and Walt
Disney Studios that put more emphasis on the effects in their films. Disney led the way by using
the series of shorts he made during that time. Silly Symphonies and the short The Old Mill used
some ground-breaking innovations, such as the multiplane camera, that made for some truly
memorable imagery. Disney not only used the shorts to train his character animators but also
began training a small group of specialists with a knack for special effects. Early on, the Effects
Department consisted of two animators and one assistant between them. Cyrus Young and
Ugo D’orsi used their unique talents for animating effects to produce some of the best animated
special effects ever done (see Figures 1.8 and 1.9).

FIG 1.8 “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from Fantasia, animated by Ugo D’orsi.

5
Essential Effects: Water, Fire, Wind, and More

FIG 1.9 Fantasia, “Blossom Ballerina,” animated by Cyrus Young.

These men, along with Josh Meador, who arrived in 1939 and who animated a lot of
the water from the Monstro sequence in Pinocchio, raised the bar for effects done in
Disney films. With the establishment of a department dedicated solely to doing effects
in films, the character animators were given some breathing room and were free to
fully concentrate their talents on character development and the acting aspects of their
characters. The effects animators began studying film and high-speed photography of
water, fire, mud, and anything related to the natural phenomenon that would be of use
to them in producing realistic effects. This was done not for copying but for the study of
patterns and design and the improvement of the overall quality of animated effects. Just
as the character animators were studying anatomy and acting to improve their skills, the
effects specialists studied all aspects of effects to prepare for the films that Walt Disney
was planning.

Along with their realistic effects, they began experimenting with caricaturization of
the effects to work not only with realistic effects for films like Bambi but cartoony
films like Dumbo. The idea was that there needed to be a marriage of characters
and effects so that each style could be represented in the same world environment.
Whether the effect was realistic or cartoony, however, it needed to follow real-
world physics. This was true even when it was comically employed in a scene as a
caricatured representation of itself or as stylized as a Mary Blair design or even the
more contemporary films from the second golden age of animation, roughly 1989–1999
(see Figures 1.10 through 1.12).
For a long time it was always pencil on paper and those drawings would then be
transferred, using pen and ink, onto celluloid sheets and painted on the backside of those
cels in black and white. Three-strip Technicolor was introduced in 1932 in Disney’s Flowers
and Trees. Later, in the late 1950s, Ub Iwerks at Disney applied the use of the xerography
process, by which the drawing are copied onto the cels and then painted on the back of
the cels. Today’s digital tools have given us another option where the drawings done on
paper are scanned into a digital file and painted on computers using an ink and paint
program to color and manipulate those elements. Another new option given to the artist
today is the use of a stylus by which the artist can now draw directly on a digital tablet and
replace the pencil and paper steps.

6
 A History of Effects in Animation

FIG 1.10 Disney’s Johnny Appleseed.

FIG 1.11 Disney’s Aladdin.

FIG 1.12 Disney’s Hercules.

7
Essential Effects: Water, Fire, Wind, and More

Being able to do the drawings as well as the backgrounds digitally has given filmmakers
another tool to produce films. Focus and diffusion or intensity of color or the blending
and combining multiple levels of characters and effects within a shot is now pretty much
a one-stop process (see Figure 1.13).

FIG 1.13 Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.

The same process that used to be done in an optical printer with numerous strips of film
for each element is now fully completed on a computer, giving filmmakers a faster process
by which to composite shots with multiple elements and a myriad of special effects tools.
The process is essentially the same. The tools may be different, but it still all has to start with
the artist and the drawing!

8
 CHAPTER 2

What Exactly Is a Traditionally

Animated Effect?

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see!
—Henry David Thoreau

Traditionally, effects animation in a film would be anything that is not a character—

everything from a stick being kicked by a character to the water that the stick falls into
and the splash that it causes. A flood, a tornado, smoke, fire, snow, or magical effects.
The shadows from a character on the ground as well as the tones that emphasize that
character’s volume and form! An effects animator is a specialist within the specialized
field of animation—someone who possesses a good understanding of how things work
in the physical world and of natural phenomena. He or she should also have a pretty good
understanding of physics and analytic skills, which will help in breaking down the how and
the why of an effect and then interpreting that effect into a drawing that gives the illusion of
being a real splash of water or smoke rising from a campfire and so on.

As in character animation, an effects animator should be able to draw well, with a penchant
for design and a love for environmental events—you know, the guy you see staring into the
churning waters at the base of an ocean-side cliff or the crackling fire in a fire pit! The guy
who watches how the water drips off his arm while standing in a swimming pool or how
the waves leave patterns while receding and leaving cauliflower-like designs of foam on
the shore. Or the girl who watches TV for documentaries on lava and volcanoes erupting
and observes the patterns that are made from fire escapes casting shadows onto the wall
of a building. In other words an observer of things happening every day, all around us, that
others may take for granted or take no notice of whatsoever! Someone with a visual acuity
for details and a knack for translating that visually, in a series of drawings that emulates the
look and feel of that effect. I think we all have this information packed away in our brains.

9
Essential Effects: Water, Fire, Wind, and More

We have all seen these things in our lifetimes and some have paid more attention to them
than others. You just have to train yourself to recall what you’ve witnessed and build on
that information utilizing those memories as well as your imagination in your animation.
Reflections on a wall cast from the sun bouncing off a puddle of water and the rhythms
they impart on your senses is a memory you can call upon when you need to add a little
ambiance to a shot where a couple of lovers are looking soulfully into each other’s eyes,
to add to the tender moment and enhance the romantic atmosphere. This is all part of an
animator’s visual recall, ready to be used whenever the need may arise. All that is required is
for you to remember what you’ve seen and when and where to apply it.

It would behoove you to study and familiarize yourself with these natural phenomena,
which may give you more insight into the forces you will be dealing with as you animate
effects and will assure that the effects will follow the natural principals of the real world.
No matter what the design or art direction of the film is, effects need to act and feel as if
they are acting under real-world principles!

• Physics: The natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through
space and time.
• Energy: A property of objects, transferable among them via fundamental interactions,
which can be converted into different forms but not created or destroyed.
• Force: An interaction that tends to change the motion of an object. A force can cause a
mass to change its velocity.
• Inertia: The resistance of any physical object to any change in its state of motion,
including change in its speed and direction. The tendency of an object to move in a
straight line at a constant velocity.
• Gravity: Gives weight to physical objects and causes them to fall toward one another.
A natural phenomenon by which physical bodies attract each other.
• Trajectory: The path followed by a projectile under the action of a given force.
• Momentum: The mass and velocity of an object. The momentum of an object remains
constant unless acted upon by an outside force.
• Friction: Surface resistance to relative motion.
• Perspective: The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give
the right impression of the height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other
when viewed from a particular point.

Knowledge of the forces that are prominent in nature is required as an effects animator.
Why? Understanding why gravity, for instance, plays a part in the trajectory of an object
traveling through the air, as do friction and inertia, helps you to animate it in a realistic
fashion! A ball thrown across a field is carried through the air because of the momentum
at which it was thrown. Inertia keeps it going until gravity pulls on it and friction in the
air slows it down, causing the ball to follow an arc in its path in the air across the field
(see Figure 2.1).

FIG 2.1 Forces affecting trajectory (arcs).

10
Another random document with
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the structural, condition of the optic nerve. That such an influence
may be exerted is shown by cases of transverse myelitis low down in
the cord, which, according to Erb and Seguin, were complicated by
double optic-nerve atrophy. The second theory is that the involved
part of the cord and the optic nerve present a similar vulnerability to
the same morbid influences. This is illustrated in some cases of
chronic alcoholic and nicotine poisoning, in ergotism, and in the
spinal affections due to hereditary influences and developmental
defects.

To discuss the nature of the disturbing influence which is responsible

for the most characteristic evidence of the disease, the ataxia, would
be equivalent to reviewing almost every mooted question in spinal
physiology. It is to be borne in mind that ataxia is a collective term
designating any inco-ordination of movement which is independent
of motor paralysis. It may be due to abolition or impairment of tactile
perception; it may be due to loss of the muscular sense; it may be
due to hampered motor co-ordination; and, finally, it may be due to a
disturbance of the space-sense. In my opinion it is only in
exceptional cases that any one of these factors can be positively
excluded. Occasionally, one has been noted when the ataxia was
grave but the tactile sense was unimpaired, or where the muscular
sense was perfect but ataxia was well developed. The difficulty with
most such records is that no discrimination is made as to the kind of
ataxia present. That loss of skill which the patient shows when he
shuts his eyes and attempts to perform certain movements without
their aid is undoubtedly due to diminished sensation, either tactile or
muscular, and usually both. The inability to stand with the eyes
closed is probably a cerebellar phenomenon, and in this respect we
are on the way to return to Duchenne's opinion. It is true that the
cerebellar organ is healthy in most tabic subjects, but its centripetal
informer, the direct cerebellar tract, is either itself involved or affected
in its origin in the columns of Clarke. But, besides the static ataxia
and that motor ataxia which can be neutralized by the use of the eye,
there is another disturbance, which, as Erb and his followers hold,
cannot be accounted for on the strength of any sensory disturbance.
It consists in an interference with the proper succession and rhythm
of movement. It seems as if that automatic mechanism by which the
individual or grouped muscular contractions engaged in locomotion
follow each other with the smoothness of the action of perfectly-
fitting cog-wheels were disturbed; the correct after-movement is
hesitated over or skipped, or even takes place at the wrong moment,
neutralizing some other step in the co-ordination required. The
tendency of physiologists and pathologists is to attribute this form of
ataxia to the disease of the intrinsic co-ordinating apparatus of the
cord itself. The experiments of Tarchanoff on a headless duck, and
the determination of the existence of cursorial co-ordinating tracts
uniting the brachial and lumbar nuclei in mammals, as well as the
observations made on automatic co-ordinate movement in
decapitated criminals, demonstrate the existence in the cord of such
an apparatus. The combination of the ganglionic centres which
underlies this co-ordination is affected by the so-called short tracts of
the cord,48 and it is precisely a portion of these which are involved in
the lesion of the column of Burdach. A number of arguments have
been advanced against regarding the lesion of this column, or
indeed any of the lesions of the posterior column, as explaining the
ataxia-producing effect of tabes. Westphal has interposed some
potent objections. He holds that lesion of these columns will be
found more frequently when examinations shall no longer be limited
to those cases where disease is suspected because ataxia was
observed during life. He found extensive disease of the posterior
columns in sufferers from paretic dementia who did not exhibit the
characteristic ataxic gait of tabes. I believe this objection can be met
by the very cases cited by Westphal in its support. Where the spinal
disorder preceded the cerebral—that is, where paretic dementia
occurred as a complication of tabes dorsalis—true locomotor and
static ataxia had been present before the insanity exploded. On the
other hand, where the spinal disease followed the cerebral, typical
ataxia did not ensue. This would seem to indicate that the
destruction of cortical control is inimical to the development of typical
tabes. Leyden has made a suggestion in the same direction when he
attributes the lesser manifestness of locomotor ataxia in tabic
females to their inferior cerebral organization.49 A more convincing
proof of the correctness of this conclusion is furnished by the fact
that if the pathological process, after destroying the posterior
columns and producing ataxia, invades the voluntary motor tract, the
ataxic symptom becomes less palpable.50 This antagonism between
lateral-column and posterior-column lesion is frequently exemplified
in the combined forms of sclerosis. It would seem, then, that where
the brain is healthy and the controlling voluntary tracts are
unimpaired, the ataxia is aggravated, supporting the beautiful theory
of Adamkiewicz, which assumes that the locomotor ataxia is due to a
disturbance of the balance normally existing between the psycho-
motor centres and those controlling the muscular tone as well as
those mediating reflex excitability.51
48 Intersegmental tracts.

49 In one out of three female eases I found the active disturbance of gait as severe as
in males, but Leyden's observation is supported by all who have seen a sufficiently
large number of female cases.

50 Not because of paresis altogether, for it diminishes materially out of proportion to

the paresis.

51 Archiv für Psychiatrie, x. p. 545. There is another observation which bears in this
direction: James of Boston observed that absolute deaf-mutes in a large percentage
of cases are insusceptible to vertigo or to the allied phenomenon of sea-sickness.
Certainly, the auditory nerve is a space-sense nerve; its physiological elimination is,
however, accompanied by an immunity against a symptom which may be an evidence
of disturbed space-sense transmission. In like manner, the destruction of the central
perceptive and voluntary centres in the paretic dement inhibits the legitimate results of
posterior spinal sclerosis.

The degeneration of the crossed-pyramid tracts in typical tabes seem to be strictly an

atrophy from disuse, perhaps facilitated by the general malnutrition of the cord. It is
limited to that part supplying the most or solely affected extremities. Thus, where the
lower extremities are alone grossly involved it is totally degenerated in the lumbar
area, and only in its outer parts in higher levels. As if to fortify this comparison by
analogous observations from every great segment of the nervous axis, a similar
inhibiting influence of pyramid lesion on co-ordinating disturbance (muscular sense) is
noted in secondary degeneration of the interolivary layer; when uncomplicated with
 pyramid lesion (Meyer and my own case,) ataxia is present; when so complicated
(Schrader, Homén) it is not observed, even if determinable.

Lissauer52 has recently determined the existence of a degeneration

of certain fine nerve-fibres, apparently derived from the outermost of
the radicles into which the posterior nerve-roots divide on entry. They
are situated on that border of the apex of the posterior horn which is
in contact with the lateral column, and were found degenerated in all
cases except such as were in the initial period. No symptomatic
relation has been claimed for this lesion.
52 Neurologisches Centralblatt, 1885, No. 11.

One of the most important questions which have grown out of the
pathological studies of tabes is the relationship between the lesions
and the not infrequently observed restoration of functions which had
been more or less seriously impaired in an earlier period of the
disease. Even those symptoms which ordinarily comprise the
continuous and essential clinical background of tabes may exhibit
remarkable changes in this direction. I have two well-established
observations—one of tabes of eight years' standing, the other of
more recent date—in which that symptom which, once established,
is the most constant, the reflex iridoplegia, disappeared, to reappear
in two months in one case where it had been associated with
myosis, and to reappear in eight months in the other, repeating this
oscillation the following year. I have now under observation a tabic
patient in the sixth year of his illness who two years ago had a return
of both knee-phenomena to a nearly normal extent, to lose them in
two months, and to regain the reflex on the left side four months ago,
retaining it up to the present. These three cases were of syphilitic
subjects. In a fourth advanced non-syphilitic tabic patient, whose
ataxia had reached a maximal degree, I found a return of both knee-
phenomena for three days after its absence had been established by
medical examiners for over a year, and had probably been a feature
for a much longer period. Hammond the younger and Eulenburg
have reported similar cases. Nothing is more surprising to those
unfamiliar with the progress of this disease than to find gross ataxia
or the electrical pains and anæsthesia to disappear or nearly so; and
the alleged success of more than one remedial measure is based on
the fallacious attributing to the remedy what was really due to the
natural remittence of the disease-process or of its manifestations.
The financial success of quacks and the temporary but rapidly
evanescent popularity of static electricity, Wilsonia belts, and like
contrivances are owing to the hopefulness inspired in the credulous
patient by the mere coincidence of spontaneous improvement and
the administration of a new remedy, supplemented, it may be, by the
influence of mind on body in his sanguine condition. It is to be
assumed that the influences which are at work in provoking the
trophic and visceral episodes of tabes are of an impalpable
character, and that all theorizing regarding the reason of their
preponderance in one and their absence in another case are as
premature as would be any speculation regarding their rapid
development and subsidence in the history of one and the same
case. But we have better grounds for explaining the remissions of
the ataxia and anæsthesia.

It is only in the most advanced stages of tabes that the destruction of

the axis-cylinder becomes absolute or nearly so. Contrary to the
opinion of Leyden,53 who held that the tabic sclerosis differs from
disseminated sclerosis in the fact that the axis-cylinder does not
survive the myelin disappearance, it is now generally admitted that a
certain number of exposed or practically denuded axis-cylinders may
be preserved in the sclerotic fields.54 It is on the theory that these
delicate channels may be oppressed at one time, perhaps by
inflammatory or congestive pressure, and relieved at another by its
subsidence, that we may assume them to be the channels through
which the now limited, now liberated, functions are mediated. It is
also reasonable to suppose that vicarious action may supplement
the impaired function, and to some extent overcome the disturbing
factors. This is illustrated by the controlling influence of the visual
function—yea, even of the unconscious and ineffectual co-operation
of completely amaurotic eyes—in neutralizing both locomotor and
static ataxia. One patient who was well advanced in the initial period
of tabes, and who had been encouraged to consider the medical
opinion to that effect as the result of an exaggerated refinement of
diagnosis, made repeated tests of the Romberg symptom in his own
case, and deluded himself into the belief that the physician was
mistaken because he succeeded in practically overcoming it with an
effort that too plainly told its own story; but still he overcame it.
Certain peripheral influences have the power of stimulating the
dormant activity of potentially vicarious tracts, and perhaps also the
blunted activity of those whose function is impaired. The outside
temperature, certain barometric conditions, all may exert an
influence in this direction for good or evil.
53 Op. cit., p. 328, vol. ii.

54 Babinski (Neurologisches Centralblatt, 1885, p. 324) notes this feature, and,

consistently with the findings of most modern observers, discovers much more
resemblance to disseminated sclerosis than to the systemic sclerosis with which
Strümpell and Westphal (in part) incline to classify tabes. Similar objections to the
system-disease theory are advanced by Zacher (Archiv für Psychiatrie, xv. p. 340). I
may not pass over in silence the fact that Babinski considers his observations to
militate also against regarding any phase of the tabic sclerosis as a secondary
process. But while it may fairly be asked that a sclerosis to be regarded as systemic
must be shown to be total, this is not necessary for a secondary process, unless the
primary involvement be total also; and that is not the case in tabes.

ETIOLOGY.—Authorities are now agreed that no single cause can be

regarded as the sole responsible factor in all cases of tabes, and that
a number of etiological influences are combined in the provocation of
this disease in most instances. When the distinctiveness of the
affection was first recognized it was customary to attribute it to
sexual excesses, and the unfortunate sufferer had frequently to bear
the implied reproach of having brought his misery on himself, in
addition to the hopeless prospect which those who followed
Romberg and other authorities of the day held out to him.55
55 This opinion survives in a large portion of the German laity and in French novels.
About the time that the poet Heine was dying from an organic spinal affection two
other prominent literary characters of Paris were affected with tabes. It so happened
that all three were popularly regarded as libidinous, and one of their leading
 contemporaries, whose name escapes me, took occasion to issue a manifesto
addressed to the jeunesse dorée which closed with the apostrophe, “Gardons à nos
moelles.”

Heredity plays a very slight part in the etiology of tabes. Writers of

ten and fifteen years ago attributed a greater importance to it than is
now done. But this was due to the incorporation with tabes of the so-
called family form of locomotor ataxia—a disease which is now
regarded as a distinct affection.56
56 There is but one record of direct heredity (the father and son being affected nearly
at the same time), to my knowledge. It was observed at the Berlin Hospital by Remak
(Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 1885, No. 7). Both father and son were syphilitic.

More importance may be attached to individual predisposition, but

thus far no distinct formulation of this factor has been attempted
except by Schmeichler,57 who offers the suggestion that there are
persons with a predisposition to the development of connective-
tissue proliferation in various organs of the body, and that in them
tabes and other sclerotic affections are consequently more frequent
than in others. This suggestion appears plausible, but it is
unconfirmed by positive observations.
57 Op. cit.

Sex appears on a superficial view to be one of the most important

elements. It is generally admitted that at most one female becomes
tabic for every ten males who do so. Of 81 cases in private practice,
I observed but 3 females. Rockwell, Seguin, Birdsall, and Putnam
give similar figures. This comparative immunity is probably due to
the fact that the female is less exposed to over-exertion, to surface
chilling of the feet, to the injurious consequences of sexual excess,
and to syphilis58 than the male. As a rule, the affection in females is
more insidiously developed, progresses more slowly, is less marked
by crises and trophic disturbances, and not accompanied by as
severe pains and profound disturbance of co-ordination as is the
corresponding affection in males.
 58 Whether the shorter vitality of the syphilitic female as compared with that of the
male is a factor in diminishing the accumulation of chronic tertiary sequelæ in that
sex, or whether it be the lesser vulnerability of the inferior nervous system, I am
unable to decide from the facts at my disposal. In private and clinical experience I
have been struck by the fact that women affected with syphilis in the same way and
under similar circumstances with tabic syphilitic males develop symptoms of
functional disorder of the brain and cord, such as spinal and cerebro-spinal irritation.
My cases referred to had in no instance any indication of a syphilitic condition or
history, and a distinct and different cause was found in all three.

The most important element in creating an acquired predisposition to

tabes is undoubtedly the existence of constitutional syphilis. Some
difference of opinion still exists regarding the proportion of syphilitic
tabic patients, chiefly due to the neglect of Erb—when he first
announced the prevailing view, and which is generally attributed to
him—to differentiate between cases of demonstrated constitutional
syphilis and the so-called spurious or soft chancre. But although
there occurred a reaction against his view which went to as great an
extreme in the opposite direction, the careful and critically registered
statistics accumulated in the mean time strengthen the view that
there are more syphilitic subjects among the tabic than among any
class of sufferers from other nervous affections.59 Reumont, a
physician at Aix-la-Chapelle, to which place syphilitic patients in
general resort in large numbers, found that of 3400 cases of syphilis,
290 had nervous affections, 40 being afflicted with tabes. Bernhardt60
took occasion to examine a group of hospital patients who were free
from tabes, and found that not fully 16 per cent. were syphilitic, while
of 125 tabic patients, over 46 per cent. were determined to have had
positive syphilitic manifestations. Several of those observers who
have paid attention to the question of the syphilitic origin of tabes
have admitted that the more searching their inquiry the larger the
proportion of detected syphilitic antecedent histories. Thus, Rumpf's
earlier table shows 66, and his later 80, per cent. of such
antecedents. This latter figure exactly corresponds to the percentage
of syphilis in my private cases. At a discussion held by members of
the American Neurological Association in 1884, Webber gave 54,
Putnam 49, Rockwell 40, Birdsall 43,61 and Seguin 22 per cent.62 as
the proportion in their experiences.
59 Excepting always those having the distinctive and undisputed syphilitic character.

60 Archiv für Psychiatrie, xv. p. 862.

61 Derived from over five hundred cases which had presented themselves at the clinic
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

62 In the Archives of Medicine he tabulates 54 (private) cases as follows:

Chancre alone 23
Chancre followed by secondary symptoms 16
Total of those with history of chancre 39
No history of chancre in 15
Total 54

Of European writers, aside from those already mentioned, Berger

claims 43 per cent., and Bernhardt, in commenting on the increasing
percentage obtained by accurate investigation, reports an additional
series of 7 new cases in private practice, all of which were syphilitic.
Fournier, Voigt, Œhnhausen, and George Fisher estimate the
syphilitic tabic patients at respectively 93, 81, and 72 per cent. of the
whole number. The almost monotonous recurrence of a clear
syphilitic history in my more recent records is such that in private
practice I have come to regard a non-syphilitic tabic patient as the
exception. Among the poorer classes the percentage of discoverable
syphilitic antecedents is undoubtedly much less. The direct exciting
causes of tabes, exposure and over-exertion, are more common with
them and more severe in their operation.

The proof of a relationship between syphilis and tabes dorsalis does

not rest on statistical evidence alone. A number of observations
show that the syphilitic virus is competent to produce individual
symptoms which demonstrate its profound influence on the very
centres and tracts which are affected in tabes. Thus, Finger63
showed that obliteration of the knee-jerk is a frequent symptom of
the secondary fever of syphilis, and that the relation is so intimate
between cause and effect that after the return of the reflex, if there
be a relapse of the fever, the obliteration of the knee-jerk is repeated.
Both the permanent loss of the knee-jerk (Remak) and the peculiar
pupillary symptoms of tabes are sometimes found in syphilitic
subjects who have no other sign of nervous disorder; and Rieger and
Foster64 regard the syphilitic ocular disturbances, even when they
exist independently, as due, like those of tabes, to the spinal, and not
to a primarily cerebral, disturbance. Another argument in favor of the
syphilitic origin of tabes is derived from the occasional remedial
influence of antisyphilitic treatment. The force of this argument is
somewhat impaired by the fact that the same measures occasionally
appear to be beneficial in tabes where syphilis can be excluded. Still,
the results of the mixed treatment in a few cases of undoubted
syphilitic origin are sometimes unmistakable and brilliant.65 As some
cases, even of long standing, yield to such measures, while others,
apparently of lesser gravity and briefer duration, fail to respond to
them, the question as to whether syphilis is a direct cause or merely
a predisposing factor may be answered in this way: That in the
former class it must have been more or less directly instrumental in
provoking the disease, while in the latter class it is to be regarded as
a remote and predisposing factor, to which other causes, not
reached by antisyphilitic treatment, became added. The claim of Erb,
that “tabes dorsalis is probably a syphilitic disease whose outbreak is
determined by certain accessory provocations,” is not subscribed to
unreservedly by a single writer of eminence.
63 “Ueber eine constante nervöse Störung bei florider Syphilis der Secundärperiode,”
Vierteljahrschrift für Dermatologie und Syphilis, viii., 1882.

64 “Auge und Rückenmark,” Graefe's Archiv für Ophthalmologie, Bd. xxvii. iii.

65 In one case already referred to a return of both knee-phenomena and complete

disappearance of locomotor and static ataxia were effected after a duration of four
years. The treatment was neglected and the knee-jerks disappeared, and one has
now returned under the resumed treatment, but accompanied by lightning-like pains.
 At a meeting of the Société médicale des Hôpitaux, held November 10, 1882,
Desplats reported a case in which even better results were obtained. Reumont
(Syphilis und Tabes nach eigenen Erfahrungen, Aachen, 1881) reports 2 out of 36
carefully observed syphilitic cases cured, and 13 as improved under antisyphilitic
treatment.

The question has been raised whether the influence of syphilis is

sufficiently great to justify a clinical demarcation between syphilitic
and non-syphilitic cases. A number of observers, including Reumont,
Leonard Weber, and Fournier, incline to the belief that there are
more atypical forms of tabes in the syphilitic group. Others, including
Rumpf, Krause, and Berger, are unable to confirm this, but the
former admits, what seems to be a general impression among
neurologists, that an early preponderance of ptosis, diplopia, and
pupillary symptoms is more common with syphilitic than with non-
syphilitic tabes. Fournier66 believes that syphilitic patients show more
mental involvement in the pre-ataxic period; but it is evident that he
has based this belief on a study of impure forms. The advent of
tabes in syphilitic cases does not in this respect differ from the rule.
The most protracted and severe diplopia I have yet encountered in a
tabic patient is one, now under observation, in the initial period of the
disease, syphilis being positively excluded as an etiological factor.
66 L'Éncephale, 1884, No. 6.

It seems to be a prevalent opinion that the cases of syphilis in which

tabes is developed include a large proportion of instances in which
the secondary manifestations were slight and unlike that florid
syphilis with well-marked cutaneous and visceral lesions which is
more apt to be followed by transitory or severe vascular affections of
the cord and brain.

Excesses in alcohol, tobacco, and abuse of the sexual function are

among the factors which frequently aggravate the tendency to tabes,
and one or more of them will usually be found associated with the
constitutional factor in syphilitic tabes. Both alcohol and nicotine
have a deleterious effect on nervous nutrition and on the spinal
functions, as is illustrated in the effect of the former in producing
general neuritis, and of both in provoking optic-nerve atrophy and
general paralysis of the insane, not to speak of the pupillary states
which often follow their abuse, and the undeniable existence of a
true alcoholic ataxia. Sexual excesses were, as stated, at one time
regarded as the chief cause: the reaction that set in against this
belief went to the extreme of questioning its influence altogether. It is
to-day regarded as an important aggravating cause in a large
number of cases, and this irrespective of whether it be the result of a
satyriacal irritation of the initial period or a precedent factor. In a
large number of my patients (18 out of 23 in whom this subject was
inquired into) the habit of withdrawing had been indulged in,67 and,
as the patients admitted, with distinct deleterious effects, such as
fulness and throbbing in the lumbo-sacral region, tremor and rigidity,
with tingling or numbness, in the limbs, blurred vision, and
sometimes severe occipital headache; in one case lightning-like
pains in the region of the anus ensued.68
67 Coitus reservatus, the real crime of the Onan of Scripture.

68 Leyden states that coitus in the upright position has been accused of producing
tabes, without mentioning his authority. I have no observation on this subject touching
tabes, but am prepared to credit its bad effect from the account of a masturbator, who
during the orgasm produced while standing felt a distinct shock, like that from a
battery, shooting from the lumbar region into his lower limbs, and causing him to fall
as if knocked down. He consulted me in great alarm—was scarcely able to walk from
motor weakness, and had no knee-phenomenon; in a few weeks it returned, and no
further morbid sign appeared. Masturbators of the worst type occasionally manifest
ataxia, and in three cases I have been able to establish the return of the knee-jerk,
together with other improvements in the spinal exhaustion of these subjects. The loss
and diminution of the patellar jerk, and the frequently associated urinary incontinence,
as well as certain of the peripheral pains found in masturbators, certainly prove that
undue repetition of the sexual act (be it natural or artificial) is competent to affect the
cord in a way that cannot but be injurious in case of a predisposition to tabes, if not
without the latter.

Of single causes, none exerts so direct and indisputable an influence

on the production of tabes as the action of cold and wet upon the
lower segment of the body. It is usually the case that such exposure
is frequently repeated and combined with over-exertion before the
disease is produced, but it is occasionally possible to trace the very
first symptom of the disease directly to a single exposure. A soldier
who stands up to his knees in a rifle-pit half full of water finds his
limbs numb or tingling; develops slight motor weakness, then
lightning-like pains, and ultimately a typical tabes. In the case of a
peddler who presented an advanced form of the disease, the first
symptoms had developed after a single wetting of his feet: while
walking along one of our watering-places with his wares the swell of
a steamer inundated the beach. He had been subject to perspiring
feet before that, and the perspiration remained checked from that
time on.69 The influence of surface chilling was remarkably manifest
in all three of my female cases. In one of them it was due to frequent
wetting of the feet; in the second, a midwife, the first symptoms
began immediately after standing on a cold hearthstone while
preparing some article needed in a lying-in case. In the third case, a
lady who contracted and safely passed through a scarlatina in her
twenty-eighth year was taken out driving while desquamation was
going on. She became thoroughly chilled, experienced numbness in
the fingers and toes, and from that day on developed a slowly
progressing tabes involving all extremities alike.70
69 Checking of habitual perspiration by violent measures is mentioned by the German
textbook writers as a frequent cause, but occurs quite rarely in the modern tables.

70 In view of the absence of spinal—or, in fact, any nervous—symptoms prior to the

exposure referred to, it does not seem necessary to insist that this was not an
instance of a true post-scarlatinal tabes; and possibly the case thus designated by
Tuczek (Archiv für Psychiatrie, xiii. p. 147) may have been really due to chilling of the
delicate body-surface after desquamation or during that process. The typical form of
myelitis and sclerosis after exanthematous fevers is rather of the disseminated type.

Spinal concussion has been mentioned by a number of authorities

as a possible cause for tabes, as for other forms of sclerotic spinal
disease. In 1 of 81 cases in my own observation the development of
the disorder could be distinctly traced to a railway injury; in 2 a
sudden aggravation was as distinctly referable to a similar cause.71
To what extent railroad travelling, with its attendant continual jarring
of the body, may predispose to the development of tabes or of other
spinal diseases is as yet a matter of mere conjecture. That railroad
travelling exerts a bad influence in some cases of the established
disease is evident; but in others the patients rather like the motion,
and claim to feel benefited by it.
71 A fall from a chair, striking on the back of the latter, while endeavoring to keep a
row of books from coming down in one case, and the shock of the Ashtabula disaster
in the other. The latter patient, the same one who is referred to as describing the
electric-storm sensation in an earlier part of this article, had his foot amputated in
consequence of that disaster; but, like one of the characters in Jacob Faithful, who felt
his toes when the weather changed, though he left both legs at Aboukir, he felt the
terrific pains of the disease in the absent foot as distinctly as in the other. Dumenil and
Petit (Archives de Névrologie, ix. Nos. 25 and 26) relate cases in which a spinal
concussion was the only ascertainable cause.

A number of toxic agents have been charged with producing tabes:

thus, Bourdon maintains this of absinthe; Oppenheim attributes one
case to poisoning by illuminating gas, the exposure to its influence
being immediately followed by a gastric crisis, and this by a
regulation tabes.72 It is supposed that most of the poisons acting on
the cord in this or a similar way, such as arsenic, cyanogen,73
barium, and chloral,74 do not produce a spinal lesion directly, but
through the medium of a secondary cachexia. Of no agent is the
effect in producing tabes so well studied as ergot of rye. It had long
been known that ergot-poisoning provoked certain co-ordinating,
motor, and sensory disturbances, but it was left for Tuczek75 to show
that this vegetable parasite produces a lesion of the spinal cord
which in its character and distribution apes typical posterior sclerosis
so closely as to justify the designation of a tabes ergotica. Possibly,
pellagra, which is sometimes manifested in a similar way,76 may yet
be shown to have a like influence.
72 Archiv für Psychiatrie, xv. p. 861.

73 Bunge, Archiv für experimentelle Pathologie, xii.

 74 Transactions of the Clinical Society of London, xiii. p. 117, 1880.

75 Archiv für Psychiatrie, xiii. p. 148.

76 Bouchard, “Étude d'Anatomie pathologique sur un Cas de Péllagrie,” Gaz. méd. de

Paris, 1864, No. 39.

Among the occasional and exceptional causes of tabes, Leyden and

Jolly mention the puerperal state; Bouchut, diphtheria; and several
instances are recorded in which psychical shock was responsible for
the outbreak of the disease. In a small number of cases I found that
mental worry and anxiety coincided with the period of presumable
origin of the disease.

Age seems to have no special determining influence. It is true that

most sufferers from this disease are men in the prime of life or in the
period following it. But it is precisely at these periods that the
exposure to the recognized causes of tabes is greatest. It seems as
if there were very little liability to the development of tabes after the
fiftieth and before the twenty-fifth year; still, some cases of infantile
tabes have been recorded.77
77 Excluding the so-called family form of locomotor ataxia: 6 rather imperfectly
described cases are cited by Remak (loc. cit.), and 3 additional ones related by
himself. Of the latter, 2 had hereditary syphilis, and of 1 the father was both syphilitic
and tabic.

In the majority of cases tabes is due to a combination of a number of

the above-mentioned factors. The majority of tabic patients in the
middle and wealthy classes have had syphilis, and of these, in turn,
the majority have been guilty of sexual excesses or perverted sexual
acts, while excesses in tobacco and of alcohol are often superadded.
Among the poorer patients we find syphilis less frequently a factor,
but still present, according to various estimates, in from 20 to 60 per
cent. of the cases. Excesses in tobacco play a lesser, and excesses
in alcohol a larger, part in the supplemental etiology than in the other
class, while exposure to wet and cold and over-exertion are noted in
the majority; indeed, in a fair proportion they are the only assignable
causes.

DIAGNOSIS.—The recognition of advanced tabes dorsalis is one of the

easiest problems of neurological differentiation. The single symptom
which has given one of its names to the disease—locomotor ataxia
—is so manifest in the gait that even the sufferers from the affection
learn to recognize the disease in their fellow-sufferers by the peculiar
walk.78
78 At present I have six tabic patients under treatment, who are acquainted with each
other, and who have made each other's acquaintance in the singular way of
addressing one another on the strength of mutual suffering at Saratoga, at the Hot
Springs of Arkansas, and in New York City.

Although there are other chronic affections of the cord which

manifest ataxia, such as myelitis predominating in the posterior
columns, disseminated sclerosis in a similar distribution, and some
partially recovered cases of acute myelitis, the gait is not exactly like
that of tabes. The uncertainty may be as great, but the peculiarly
stamping and throwing motions are rarely present in these
affections. The clinical picture presented by the ataxic patient, aside
from his gait, is equally characteristic in advanced cases. Absence of
the knee-jerk and other deep reflexes, the bladder paralysis, sensory
disturbance, delayed pain-conduction, trophic disturbances, and
reflex iridoplegia are found in the same combination in no other
chronic disorder of the cord. It is supposable that an imperfect
transverse myelitis in the lumbar part of the cord might produce the
reflex, ataxic, sensory, sexual, and vesical symptoms of ataxia, but
the brachial symptoms found in typical tabes as well as gastric crises
would be absent. The pupillary symptoms would also fail to be
developed, in all probability. It is to be remembered that only
fascicular cord affections can produce a clinical picture exactly like
that of tabes in more than one important respect. In analyzing the
individual symptoms of the early stage the more important differential
features can be most practically surveyed.
The discovery of no single symptom of tabes dorsalis marks so
important an epoch in its study as Westphal's observation that the
knee-phenomenon is usually destroyed in it. Had this symptom not
been detected, so Tuczek admits, ergotin tabes would have eluded
recognition.79 It was claimed by a majority of neurologists at first that
this jerk is always abolished in tabes, but it is now recognized that
there are exceptions, as is shown by cases of Hirt,80 Westphal, and
others, not to mention some well-established cases of its return
during the progress of the disease.
79 It is not to be wondered that, like most new discoveries, that of the pathological
changes of the patellar reflex should have been made the basis of premature
generalizations. The attempt of Shaw (Archives of Medicine) to establish a relation
between disturbances of the speech-faculty and an increased knee-jerk has not met
with any encouragement or confirmation, and has been rebutted by Bettencourt,
Rodrigues (L'Éncephale, 1885, 2), and others.

80 Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 1886, 10.

The knee-phenomenon is supposed to be a constant attribute of

physiological man. It is difficult to elicit it in children, and frequently
impossible to obtain it in young infants. It also disappears in old age,
without having any special signification, except that this occurrence
seems to be in direct relation to senile involution. In 2403 boys
between the ages of six and thirteen years, Pelizæus81 found it
absent in one only. It is customarily elicited by having the patient
while sitting in a chair throw one leg over the other; hereupon the
ligamentum patellæ is struck a short, quick blow. Under physiological
circumstances the leg is jerked outward involuntarily after an interval
of about one-fifth of a second—one that is scarcely appreciated by
the eye. But if it be found absent by this mode of examination, the
case is not to be regarded as one of absence of the jerk without
further ado. The patient is made to sit on a table, his legs dangling
down and his body leaning back, while he clenches his fists. By this
means the jerk will often be produced where it appears to be
impossible to evolve it by the ordinary means. It is also well to try
different parts of the ligament, and when comparing both sides to
strike on the corresponding spot and in the same direction. Many
subjects who appear to be irresponsive will respond very well when
a point on the outer edge near the tibial insertion is percussed. The
elbow reflex, which has the same signification for the upper extremity
that the knee-jerk has for the lower, is elicited in the same manner.
81 Archiv für Psychiatrie, xv. p. 206.

The absence of the knee-jerk is usually regarded as a suspicious

circumstance in persons of middle life; and where it can be
demonstrated that it has been present years previously and
subsequently disappeared, it is looked upon as of grave import. I,
however, published three years ago an authentic case of
disappearance of the knee-jerk in a physician now in active practice
in New York City who to this day enjoys excellent health and has
developed no other sign of spinal disease. The knee-jerk is also
abolished in a number of conditions not belonging to the domain of
strictly spinal diseases, such as diphtheria, diabetes, secondary
syphilis, and severe cases of intermittent fever. Of these, diabetes
alone can be possibly confounded with tabes dorsalis. The difficulty
of differentiating early tabes and diabetes is enhanced by the fact
that on the one hand there are often ataxic symptoms with diabetes,
while on the other both glycosuria and diabetes insipidus may
complicate tabes. Senator, Frerichs, Rosenstein, Leval-Piquechef,
Charcot, Raymond, Demange, Féré, Bernard, and T. A. McBride all
recognize the occasional presence of the ataxic gait, paræsthesia,
belt sensation, and even fulgurating pains, besides the abolition of
the jerk, in diabetes mellitus.82 In pure cases of diabetes, however, I
am not aware that spinal myosis or the reflex paralytic pupil has
been found.
82 I have now under observation a case of myelitis with predominating sclerosis of the
posterior columns of five years' standing in a merchant who has been under
antidiabetic treatment for eleven years.

Abolition of the knee-jerk is found in all organic diseases of the

spinal cord which destroy any part of the neural arch at the upper
lumbar level, where the translation of the reflex occurs, whether it be
in the posterior root-zones or in the gray matter of the origin of the
crural nerves. Thus, acute or chronic myelitis, disseminated sclerotic
foci of this level, may cause obliteration of the reflex at any time of
the disease; so may acute or chronic anterior poliomyelitis,
neoplasms, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis of the anterior cornua
type if the destruction of the anterior cornua be complete enough. It
is also found abolished with all diseases of the peripheral nerves—
traumatic and neuritic—which produce absolute motor paralysis of
such nerves.

Among the sources of error possibly incurred in examining for this

important symptom the presence of rheumatism is one. There is
sometimes a tetanic rigidity of the joints which prevents the reflex
from becoming manifest. It is also sometimes found to be absent
immediately after severe epileptic attacks, according to Moeli.83
83 In three examinations after severe attacks of epilepsy I found it normal.

The condition of the pupil is perhaps a more constant sign of early

tabes than the loss of the knee-jerk; at least it has been found well
marked in cases where the jerk had not yet disappeared. It may be
regarded as a rule in neuro-pathology that wherever reflex
iridoplegia is at any time accompanied by other oculo-motor
disturbance, it is either of spinal origin or in exceptional cases due to
disease of the pons varolii. The peculiar character of the pupillary
disturbance of tabes furnishes us with a criterion for distinguishing it
from one affection which in common with it exhibits loss of the knee-
jerk—diphtheria. In diphtheria there is also a reflex disturbance of the
pupil, but it is the reverse of that of early tabes. In the latter reaction
to light is lost, but the accommodative contraction power is retained;
in diphtheria accommodative contraction power is lost, but reaction
to light is retained.

The bladder disturbance has already been described. It is found as a

marked symptom so prominently in no other systemic affection of the
cord, and in few of the non-systemic forms, of sclerosis. In none of
these is it associated with absence of the patellar jerk, reflex
iridoplegia, and fulminating pains, as in tabes, except there be also
some motor paresis. It is the combination of any two of the important
initial symptoms of tabes without paralysis or atrophy that is
regarded as indicative of the disease by most authorities. Thus the
swaying in closing the eyes, if associated with the Argyll-Robertson
pupil, is considered as sufficient to justify the diagnosis of incipient
tabes, even if the knee-jerk be present and fulminating pains and
bladder trouble absent. Undoubtedly, the tabic symptoms must begin
somewhere. But at what point it is justifiable to give a man the
alarming information that he is tabic is a question. I have a number
of neurasthenic subjects now under treatment who have had reflex
iridoplegia for years; in one the knee-jerk is slowly becoming
extinguished; in two it has been becoming more marked after
becoming less; in all the three mentioned there is slight swaying in
closing the eyes and some difficulty in expelling the last drops of
urine while micturating. I do not believe that such a condition justifies
a positive opinion, although the surmise that they are on the road to
developing tabes may turn out correct for all these and for some of
those who have merely reflex iridoplegia.

Incipient tabes cannot be readily confounded with any other chronic

disease of the spinal cord. Some of the cases produced by sudden
refrigeration resemble a beginning myelitis. But the absence of true
paralysis seems to distinguish it from the latter. In all the cases of so-
called acute locomotor ataxia of myelitic origin that I can find a
record of, paralytic symptoms were marked, if not throughout the
disease, at least in the initial period.

Other forms of sclerosis occasionally limited to the posterior columns

imitate the symptoms of tabes. It is unusual, however, for such
sclerosis to be distributed through so great an extent of the posterior
columns as to produce symptoms consistent with tabes in both the
upper and lower extremities. And even where this condition is
complied with, the typical progress so characteristic of tabes is not
adhered to. As previously stated, the progress is weakened by
variations in certain symptoms. Such variations are found in other
forms of sclerosis, but they are not as great, trophic disturbances not
so common, and visceral crises not so violent, as a rule.