When nerve degeneration has once begun, iodide will do little good and mercury may do positive harm, if used in large doses.

The other common predisposing causes, exposure to cold, over-exertion, sexual excess, need concern us only as they suggest warnings to be given, especially when the patient is improving.

Until he does improve not much need be said about them; he cannot indulge in venery, as sexual power is usually (though not always) lost early in the disease; and the incooerdination lessens his opportunities of exposure or over-exertion.
During this stage some patients complain most of the numbness, girdle-sense, and incooerdination; others of the stabbing pains or the bladder weakness.

The general treatment must be much the same, however, in all, with special attention besides to the special needs of each individual.
Fatigue makes all the symptoms worse, increases pain, and impairs still more the muscular incooerdination; it is, therefore, of the first importance in every instance to forbid all over-exertion.

Walking, more than any other form of exercise, hurts these cases.