Severe, recurring pains as the result of the degeneration of the spinal cord in anyone who has been suffering from syphilis: Such a visceral crisis is a complication which affects the spinal cord, causing abnormalities of sensations; sharp pains, incoordination, and incontinence; which appear several years after the infection.

Another version that describes the terrible conditions of this visceral crisis also involves what is known as tabes dorsalis which includes the lightning-like pain attacks, ataxia (wobbliness), deterioration of the nerves to the eyes (the optic nerves) leading to blindness, urinary incontinence, loss of the sense of one's physical balance, and the degeneration of the joints or the inability to feel pain because of nerve damage.