Etiology of rheumatism, diet in rheumatism, relation of chorea and rheumatism and of tonsillitis and rheumatism / by Joseph E. Winters.

  • Winters, Joseph Edcil, 1848-1922.
Date:
[1907?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Etiology of rheumatism, diet in rheumatism, relation of chorea and rheumatism and of tonsillitis and rheumatism / by Joseph E. Winters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The natural history of rheumatism invests it with un- common interest. In a few hours the joints become greatly swollen, tender, and painful; this continues with unabated severity for weeks; yet inflammatory action does not progress beyond the stage it was on the first day. After weeks or months it ceases spontaneously; leaves no impairment; the joints are in as perfect condition as they were before the disease began. Acute and subacute types alternate for years in the same parts; still there is no disorganization. Chronic, subacute, and acute exist in the same parts at the same moment of time. A man has no respite from the incubus of rheumatism for a score of years; he contracts typhoid fever; a milk diet is enforced for two months; he emerges rheumatic- free. He engrafts former diet; thraldom of rheumatism ensues. Surely these are pe(;uliarities remarkable enough to ar- rest the attention and excite the interest of every medical man. At any time in its course rheumatism may involve the heart, the lungs, or the nervous centres, and terminate life al)ruptly. Nothing is more important to the physician than an understanding of the nature of this complaint. Medical literature contains nothing logical or of any value on the etiology of rheumatism. The late Dr. Wil- son Fox, of London, once said; “I never see rheumatic fever any more. If a case comes into hospital my house physician prescribes full doses of salicylic acid, and the man is practically cured before I see him.” *liead before the Society of Alumni of Bellevue Hospital, Nov. 6, 1907.