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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The History of Rheumatic Diseases

subject

description

The lectures of Schonlein* (1873) (Fig. 1) state: The nature of this disease being more dynamic, explains the fact that few abnormalities of significance have been found at autopsy. This statement stems from the inadequacy of the then current methods but also suggests a concept of rheumatic diseases, some ingredients of which have survived to this day. However, even a short review of medical history shows progressive differentiation of various disease entities: originally Hippocrates (460–377 BC) took “Rheuma” and “Catarrh” to be synonymous with a process during which “mucous flux” left the brain for various foci in the entrails and also the joints, and there produced disease. He mentions “arthritic pain” but this is only incidental to the general concept of rheumatism.