The history of rheumatism antedates that of clinical medicine. It is replete with medical superstitions and unfounded interpretations. Only in the last twenty-five years have these superstitions, handed down from ancient and medieval medicine, given way to the attacks of pathology and bacteriology. It was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that Ballonius dissociated the term "rheumatism" from its primitive interpretation. In 1642 he differentiated from acute gout that symptom complex which we now call acute articular rheumatism and restricted the use of the term "rheumatism" to this condition. In the same century, Sydenham, in his "Classical Observations," still further clarified the situation, especially differentiating between gout and rheumatism. From the best evidence that we have been able to obtain, it seems that Cullen was the first person to interest himself in what is now called muscular rheumatism. He is especially known for having fearlessly and uncompromisingly cast