Under this head, I include the cases described under many different names and by numerous writers, e. g., arthritis deformans (German), osteo-arthritis (English), hypertrophic arthritis (Goldthwait), degenerative arthritis (Nichols and Richardson). This is the so-called senile form of arthritis, the "chronic rheumatism" of the elderly, the metabolic form of arthritis. Other writers have employed other terms, almost without number.
The subject is a most confused one, so confused that, in reading an article, one is often at a loss to understand the author's meaning, whether he is really discussing this disease or one entirely different.
Generally, the name employed is one that describes the characteristic which the author deemed most important, but it often turns out to be a misnomer in the light of subsequent investigation, and is thus a source of confusion. Thus "arthritis deformans," a mixture of Greek and Latin, means different things to different people.1 Again,