Upon organizing a clinic for the study and treatment of joint disease in the Cook County Hospital, we were confronted by an unlimited number of patients. As treatment we had liberal hospital facilities and provision for physical medicine.
A galaxy of drugs was available, some of these dignified by long use. Others had been recently introduced, were widely used, and were currently accepted with considerable enthusiasm. Some of the new chemicals, offered to us for clinical trial after preliminary laboratory evaluation, were possibly harmful and only questionably beneficial. The skeletal disease in most of our patients was chronic and rather stationary, with an unmeasured tendency to spontaneous remissions and relapses. Most of the patients had tried many drugs and procedures upon the advice of physicians, drug stores, advertisements, or acquaintances. Almost all the patients had taken acetylsalicylic acid or proprietaries containing salicylates. The application for help in our clinic could