The recognition of rheumatoid arthritis in the eighteenth century. The contribution of Linné and Boissier de la Croix de Sauvages

Abstract

Linné and Boissier de la Croix de Sauvages, two botanists and physicians of the mideighteenth century, proposed systems for the classification of diseases. Their medical works have been examined for passages suggestive of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). References to gouty arthritis dominated in Linné's works. Sauvages described chronic joint diseases with affection of small and large joints which might have been RA. William Musgrave described similar cases in 1703. In a single passage in Linné's works such cases are also described. The conclusion is that RA probably has existed throughout the eighteenth century, and that its supposed emergence around the year 1800 is not well-founded.