An historical approach to the nomenclature of rheumatoid arthritis

The history of the nomenclature of rheumatoid arthritis has been traced from antiquity to the present discussion of “rheumatoid disease.” Although Guillaume de Baillou recognized rheumatism as being arthritis in 1611, Augustin Jacob Landré Beauvais was the first to describe clearly rheumatoid arthritis, calling it primary asthenic gout in 1800. Sir Alfred Baring Garrod coined the term rheumatoid arthritis in 1858. The British Ministry of Health adopted this term in 1922, and the American Rheumatism Association replaced atrophic arthritis with rheumatoid arthritis in 1941.