The problem of "tuberculous rheumatism" has been studied with a varying amount of interest during the past 60 years, mainly in France, though some work has been done in Great Britain and the United States. Layani, Durupt, and Chaouat (1956) reviewed the subject and tried to define the syndrome more exactly by using a test specific for tuberculosis, the tuberculin test. The results were compared...

Damp, chill, and exposure have always been considered prime factors in rheumatic fever. The conditions of modern war-the trench or fox-hole filled with water, icy exposure, sleeping in wet clothing, and the crowded dug-out or shelter-seem to make an environment favourable to rheumatic fever, and one might expect it to be outstanding among those diseases which crowd in the train of war. Yet it f...

It seems now to be fairly widely agreed that emotional factors are relevant to the study of rheumatism, and particularly of non-articular rheumatism or fibrositis. The Horder Report (1941) stated that " Worry, anxiety, mental shock, can be often recognized as promotive of rheumatic disease ". The relationship is perhaps more often expressed as a matter of differential diagnosis between muscular...