Gold Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Abstract

ally occurring epidemic disease of rodents, and sometimes arises spontaneously in laboratory animals. It can be transmitted from one animal to another artificially by injecting fluid from the joints or internal organs of infected animals into the joints of the healthy animals. Collier (1939) found that injection of such gold com pounds as aurodetoxin and solganal B into rats protects them against experimental infection. Findlay, Mackenzie, and MacCallum (1940) have shown that infectious arthritis of rodents is due to a pleuropneumonia type of organism. Xike Collier, they were able to show that gold compounds would protect against the inoculated disease, solganal B being the most efficacious. Arsenical compounds also had a prophylactic action, but not so great as that of gold. No effect was produced by any of the sulphon amide derivatives. These results are the most suggestive, as Swift and Brown (1939) claim to have isolated a pleuro pneumonia-like organism from human cases of acute rheumatism.