Researches on rheumatism / by F.J. Poynton and Alexander Paine.

  • Poynton, F. J. (Frederic John), 1869-1943.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches on rheumatism / by F.J. Poynton and Alexander Paine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    by the light of ascertained facts but we have always remem- bered that these ventures were tentative. The establishment of the cause of a most important disease among those classed in general terms as rheumatic is, we believe, the first and essential step in the study of the problem and then by com- paratively easy stages the remainder of the group will be eventually elucidated. It is not difficult to see how the horizon widens as an outcome even of the results recorded here. If there is a definite infective agent for some form of rheumatism that agent must differ in virulence and resistance in different cases, and in these possibilities lies a large field for observation. The morbid anatomy resulting from the toxines of this infection will serve as a basis for comparison in the study of the allied disorders. Again, the results of multiple infections can be more easily interpreted when the results of the simple infection are understood. This investigation we realise only touches upon the greater problem of rheumatism. We have not thrown light upon the actual nature of the toxines, and many of the questions as to the more chronic forms of arthritis have yet to be ex- plained. The field is a very wide one and of the greatest interest and importance in this country in which rheumatism is so frequent.