CHRONIC ARTHRITIS

Abstract

In considering any study of arthritis it seems advisable to define the term as used, as it obviously means different things to different persons. My conception of arthritis is that it is a disease probably of infectious origin. Etiologic evidence is accumulating which points strongly toward the streptococcus as being the causative agent in the majority of cases of arthritis, including acute cases that are termed rheumatic fever as well as chronic arthritis. The literature covering the etiologic evidence for streptococcic infection has been reviewed by Clawson1for rheumatic fever and by Clawson and me2for chronic arthritis. Jordan3and Poynton and Schlesinger4have also reviewed the literature of the microbic origin of these conditions. There is no doubt but that other organisms such as the gonococcus and Bacillus tuberculosis may produce a type of arthritis that occasionally simulates streptococcic arthritis. It is also known that