The scope of this paper is limited to the consideration of two phases of rheumatic cardiopathies which, not-withstanding the relative frequent occurrence of these manifestations and their great importance because of their far-reaching effects, have, until a recent period, been almost as imperfectly determined in the one case and ineffectually managed in the other as when Pitcairn, in 1788, noticed the connection between rheumatism and pericarditis, a relation more fully explained by Dundas, Wells and Latham, or when Baillie and Kreisig observed the association of acute rheumatism and endocarditis, the definite connection of which was shown by Bouillaud, who also introduced the term endocarditis.
RHEUMATISM AS A FACTOR IN HEART DISEASE.
Among the extrinsic causes of diseases of the heart rheumatism has long held the most important position. It has gradually absorbed into its etiologic relations the so-called idiopathic inflammations of the pericardium and endocardium, and even certain myocardial conditions