There is an interesting group of cases characterized by typical symptoms which the Germans have described under the name "Spontan-gangrän." In 1879 von Winiwarter published the results of the pathological findings in one case, and reported an obliteration of practically all of the arteries of the leg by reason of a chronic proliferative process, due, in his opinion, to a new growth of tissue from the intima. He, therefore, proposed a new name for this condition, namely, "endarteritis obliterans." Patients afflicted with this so-called endarteritis obliterans present symptoms which are so characteristic that the diagnosis is not difficult. I have had occasion to observe some thirty cases of this disease, and have made pathological studies on the vessels obtained from eleven amputated limbs.
The disease occurs frequently, although not exclusively, among the Polish and Russian Jews, and it is in the dispensaries and hospitals of New York City that we