Primary Asthenic Gout by Augustin-Jacob Landre-Beauvais in 1800: Is this the first description of Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Abstract

Although Alfred Baring Garrod was the physician who introduced the term Rheumatoid Arthritis, it was the French medical student Augustin-Jacob Landre-Beauvais who firstly described the newly appeared type of arthritis. In his opinion, “Goutte Asthénique Primitive”, as he named it, affected mostly the poor, with bigger prevalence among women, presenting characteristic capsular swelling, limitation of motion of the joints in the hands and fingers, and development of bony ankylosis with disorganisation of many joints. Landre-Beauvais was known for his empathy towards his patients, an acquired feeling due to his internship under Pinel. His greatest treatise “Séméiotique, ou Traité des signes des maladies” was greatly influenced in its structure by the concept of Corpus Hippocraticum. © Tsoucalas G, Sgantzos M