"Then I knew that he had had the lightning pains, and that the case was complete.

He felt the heavy dull crunch, felt his body flung around and the lightning pain as his face slammed into the dashboard.

It may occur early, being either asymptomatic or in the form of syphilitic meningitis, or late as meningovascular syphilis, general paresis, or tabes dorsalis, which is associated with poor balance and lightning pains in the lower extremities.

The main features of tabes are an inability to balance when the eyes are shut, numbness, and 'tingling' sensations, 'lightning pains', which are sharp, shooting pains, usually in the lower limbs, which may come and go in a short time or last for several days without remission.