RHEUMATIC FEVER

Abstract

Rheumatism has long remained one of the riddles of medicine. In recent years there has been a marked awakening of interest in this subject, as indicated by the organization of new societies, both national and international, for the study of different phases of the problem. As the incidence of other diseases is decreased, the economic importance of rheumatism appears in sharper outline. It cripples the leg of the laborer on the soil and the arm of the toiler at the bench, and charts a life of cardiac invalidism for his child. In addition to its humanitarian emotions, modern society realizes that sound health of its members is an economic requirement; hence maladies that not only decrease the earning capacity of some of its units but increase the burdens of others eventually attract the attention of all. Consequently on us as physicians and investigators is placed more emphatically at this time