The etiology of rheumatism is still in a rather hazy condition, though much has been done in recent years to dispel the mist. No one doubts, however, that there are still grouped under the generic term rheumatism a variety of joint lesions of unlike etiology. The spinal form of arthritis deformans is now well known in its severer forms, but the milder varieties of vertebral joint inflammation are often ascribed to rheumatism, or classed as lumbago or torticollis. Bouchard2 has recently described a form of spinal arthropathy of a chronic nature which is usually mild in its manifestations, but may be severe, and then constitutes, he thinks, the so-called "Spondylose rhizomélique" of Marie. In its usual form the condition attacks one segment of the spinal column, the lumbar, the dorsal, or the cervical. The symptoms are limitation of movement, at times going on to ankylosis, deformity of the spine,