This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
One of your recent reviewers said he seldom wrote at length about a bad book. This is a very bad book, but I shall write at length because it exemplifies the weaknesses of that disorganized mass known as modern rheumatology. I had polyarthritis in 1934, and I have read nearly everything written on rheumatism since then. I have observed every change of fashion and have tried to preserve those which are good. I was a general practitioner until 1941, then an orthopedic surgeon in the days when polyarthritis was regarded as a disease of the joints. I thought of a rheumatologist as a bloodless orthopedic surgeon chiefly concerned (like the polio orthopedist) with muscle balance and the prevention of deformity. F. M. McKeever said in a presidental address to orthopedists (McKeever, F. M.: The Need for Basic Investigation in Orthopedic Surgery, J. Bone Joint Surg. 35A:285 (April) 1953):
The real