Etiology of rheumatism, diet in rheumatism, relation of chorea and rheumatism and of tonsillitis and rheumatism / by Joseph E. Winters.

  • Winters, Joseph Edcil, 1848-1922.
Date:
[1907?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Etiology of rheumatism, diet in rheumatism, relation of chorea and rheumatism and of tonsillitis and rheumatism / by Joseph E. Winters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    neutralization of acids are those of the blood. Reduction in alkalescence of blood causes disintegration of red blood cells—rheumatic anemia: Always the first sign, often the only symptom in a child. In profound rheumatic states as in hypeipyrexia, sodiipn carbonate of the plasma is decomposed, carbonic acid set free. Accumulation of carljonic acid shuts off oxidation. Menacing symptoms in rheumatic hyperpyrexia are due to rapid, large withdrawal fi-om blood of the basic ele- ment, sodium; fatal reduction in alkalescence of blood; liberation of carbonic acid; arrest of detoxicating oxidative processes. This explains rheumatism from muscular and articular soreness following unusual exercise to rheumatic amemia and rheumatic hyperpyrexia. It also makes it clear why there is no line of separation between cases classified as subacufe and acute; between chronic and subacute; from acute to hyperpyrexia. They are varying degrees of the same chemical disorder, alternating, blending indiscernibly. Neglected, untreated acute rheumatism may evidence no moderation for weeks; yet after weeks or months of unrelinquished severity, it is as amenable to enlightened treatment as it would have been on the first daj^ With the application of unchanging chemical laws at any time in its course, acid-neutralization is at once promjjt and complete. Decisive, irrefragable attestation of chem- ical etiology. Uncomplicated acute 'rheumatism, irrespective of dura- tion or severity, never ends in suppuration. This extraor- dinary feature is likewise explained by the chemical nature of the complaint. Numerous recrudescences at varying intervals for years, constituting a large part of the life history of the patient, can only be solved by recognizing its issuing from disordei’ed metabolism. ^Metabolic etiology elucidates and makes inevitable the natural history; the natural history makes other origin than perverted physiological chemistry impossible. INCREASING PREVALENCE OF RHEUMATISM IN CHILDHOOD PHYSIOLOGICALLY EXPOUNDED. Muscles constitute 4.3 per cent, of the total body-weight in an adult; in a young child relatively one-half this proportion.