FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON PATHOLOGIC SIMILARITIES BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL SCURVY COMBINED WITH INFECTION, AND RHEUMATIC FEVER

Abstract

In the guinea pig, chronic scurvy with superimposed infection (beta streptococcus) and to a lesser extent chronic scurvy alone, produces an arthropathy with striking pathologic similarities to that of rheumatic fever and the closely allied condition of rheumatoid arthritis. Considerable significance is attached to the widespread occurrence in the experimental animal subjected to scurvy and infection, and to a lesser extent in scurvy alone, of lesions similar to if not identical with the fibrinoid degeneration which has been considered the fundamental lesion of rheumatic fever. A subcutaneous nodule essentially similar to the subcutaneous nodules of rheumatic fever was observed in one experimental animal.