A Short History of the Gout and the Rheumatic Diseases

Abstract

In January, 1962, W. S. C. Copeman of London delivered a series of lectures at the University of California at Los Angeles on the history of rheumatic diseases. The lectures were expanded and recently have been published. The maladies discussed included gout, acute rheumatism (rheumatic fever), chorea, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritis, and nonarticular rheumatism. The author, a distinguished rheumatologist and skilled clinician, editor of the<i>Annals of Rheumatic Diseases</i>, senior physician for rheumatic diseases at Middlesex Hospital of London, and chairman of the faculty of the History of Medicine of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, London, has shown himself thoroughly equal to the task. The volume is well written and appropriately illustrated. Not since 1900, when Armand Delpeuch published his history,<i>La Goutte et le Rhumatisme</i>, has such an authoritative and worthwhile text appeared.