Rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis and subcutaneous nodules / by C.O. Hawthorne.

  • Hawthorne, C. O. (Charles Oliver), 1858-1949.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis and subcutaneous nodules / by C.O. Hawthorne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/70 (page 4)
    record is written in clear characters on various collections of human bones of almost prehistoric date.9 And a reference by Sydenham10 shows that the facts of the disease attracted his attention, though there is nothing in his writings to suggest that he regarded the condition other than as a mere variety of rheumatism. It is to Heberden (1710-1801), and Haygarth (1740-1827), that the responsibility of first endeavouring to advance rheumatoid arthritis to the position of an independent disease must be attached. References to the condition may be found in three of Heberden’s chapters.11 In the section dealing with “Arthritis (Gout)” he describes a “malady whatever it be named,” in which “the pains are less violent than in the common gout though the swellings are greater,” and in which the “remarkable circumstance is that of great and lasting feebleness ” ; and claims that “ the continuance of the pain, the return of it, and its consequences will differ so much from ordinary gout, that it is either to be called a rheumatism or should be distinguished by some peculiar name from both these diseases.” In writing of “Rheumatism,” Heberden says, “ The chronical differs from the acute rheumatism in being joined with little or no fever, in having a duller pain and commonly no redness, but the swellings are more permanent, and the disease is of much longer duration ” ; and again “in the limb affected in the chronical sort the use has at least in many cases been wholly taken away.” Then in the appendix to his book he treats specifically “ Of the Chronical Rheumatism,” which, he writes, “ often passes under the general name of rheumatism and is sometimes supposed to be the gout,” but “ is in reality a very different distemper from the genuine gout and from the acute 9 See article by Senator in Ziemssen’s “ Cyclopaedia of the Practice of Medicine,” Vol. XVI., p. 147, also article by Eve, “British Medical Journal,” 1890, Vol. I., p. 423. 10 Sydenham on Rheumatism : “The pains . . . may cease of their own accord ; the patient, however, shall be a cripple to the day of his death, and wholly lose the use of his limbs ; whilst the knuckles of his fingers shall become knotty and protuberant (as in gout) with the knots showing most on the inside. With all this the stomach shall be strong, and the patient be sound in other respects.”—Op. cit., Vol. I., p. 255- 11 “ Commentaries on the History and Cure of Diseases.” By Wm. Heberden, M.D., London, 2nd edit., 1803.