Contemporary research on the pathology of rheumatic disease review in the light of 100 years of cellular pathology.

Perhaps in no field of human disease, more than in the field of rheumatism and connective-tissue disorders, have such great technical advances been made in methods of biological study. Some of the knowledge thus gained and some of the ideas suggested are at present difficult to apply directly to the clinical problems that face rheumatologists. Moreover, some of the newly discovered facts seem at first sight to be incompatible with traditional pathological teaching. These are the reasons that led me on to shape this address in the form of a short but broad review of what is happening in rheumatism on the pathological side, and to attempt, with a historical glance backwards, to put recent work in proper perspective.