The paradox that clubbing of the fingers usually occurs with pulmonary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy, though most instances of clubbed fingers are not associated with osteoarthropathy, should halt those physicians who have adopted the grandiose but misleading habit of referring to clubbing of the fingers as pulmonary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy. Periosteal new-bone formation in osteoarthropathy is its distinct and unmistakable lesion and usually indicates cancer of the lung, but clubbing of the fingers itself has no such serious implication. Very rarely the characteristic sign of periosteal new-bone formation may occur in the absence of intrathoracic lesions (1, 2), and a similar condition, pachydermoperiostosis,