THE MUSCLES, their coverings, and their attachments have been accorded slight but increasing attention in the pathology of the conditions known broadly as the rheumatic diseases. In 1843 Froriep, a pathologist in Weimar, noted fibrous flecks in muscles of patients with arthritis. He called these flecks rheumatic scars. Others denied their rheumatic origin or failed to find them.1
The English have long recognized painful soft tissues, juxta-articular and far from joints. This so-called fibrositis, characterized by pain and tenderness in ligaments, tendons, tendon sheaths, fascia, and muscles, has not been regarded as having any generally accepted histopathological features. Occasionally the term "myogelosis" has been used to describe the changes in tissues so affected. In 1904 Aschoff described infiltrated, degenerated areas in the myocardium of patients with rheumatic fever.2 Geipel made similar discoveries about the same time.3 What is now known as the Aschoff body was observed in