The importance of diet in the treatment of chronic arthritis is a question on which there is today considerable difference of opinion. In practice, its effect, as a rule, is confused by the establishment of several forms of treatment at one time, such as the removal of infectious foci, rest in bed, electrotherapy and hydrotherapy and other hygienic measures. It is, however, the experience of many observers that improvement is often brought about by changes in diet alone. But as to the character of this change, difference of opinion also exists. Increase in diet is recommended by some and decrease by others, or reduction of proteins in one case and reduction of carbohydrates in another. Sometimes improvement has been so marked as to lead older clinicians to believe that the disease had a metabolic basis, but clinical and laboratory investigation has not offered much evidence to support this hypothesis. In