rheumatismn.

1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 133 Fluxes, called by the Greekes Rheumatismes.

1657 N. Culpeper & W. Rand tr. J. Riolan Sure Guide ii. xxxviii. 92 We must also observe the common Causes of the Pains, which are frequently found in Pains of the Loines, as internal Rheumatismes or Fluxes of Humors.

1661 J. Evelyn Fumifugium 13 The Inhabitants are never free from Coughs and importunate Rheumatisms, spitting of Impostumated and corrupt matter.

1670 Acct. Causes Distempers 11 The very best Remedy in the World against the Dropsy and the Gout; taking away all Swellings from the Belly, Thighs and Legs, and all manner of Pains, tho' fixed in the very Bones; and that in Rheumatisms when the Pains have been so cruel and intollerable as not to be born without violent Roarings and Cryings out, they have done wonders.

1688 W. Salmon Phylaxa Medicina (ed. 2) 14/1 Tartarous Diseases, as the Scurvy, Pox, Dropsy, Jaundice, Gout, Rheumatism.

1700 J. Dryden Chaucer's Palamon & Arcite iii, in Fables 64 And Rheumatisms I send to rack the Joints.

1749 R. James Diss. Fevers (ed. 2) Add. 62 This Medicine [sc. James's Powder] has been found..to be most effectual in a Rheumatism.

1793 C. Smith Let. 20 Dec. (2003) 91 Being half crippled in my hands..by the Rhumatism.

1836 London Med. Gaz. 22 Oct. 117/2 ‘I have got the rheumatism,’ is a complaint we hear now and then, as applied to wandering pains.

1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede II. ii. xviii. 23 On wet Sundays, or whenever he had a touch of rheumatism, he used to read the three first chapters of Genesis.

1886 H. Eichhorst Handbk. Pract. Med. IV. x. 153 In Kiel, acute articular rheumatism is a ‘house disease’, like fibrinous pneumonia and typhoid fever, so that, for example, 728 cases occurred in 492 houses.

1910 Lancet 12 Mar. 713/2 Muscular rheumatism.—This affection is always a fibrositis.

1920 ‘K. Mansfield’ Let. 17 Feb. (1993) III. 222 If ever you have neuralgia or rheumatism or any pains of that kind take irénine.

1966 G. P. Wright & W. S. Symmers Systemic Pathol. I. iii. 113/2 The focal lesions of acute rheumatism are usually found in close relationship to arteries.

1984 D. Parker & J. Parker New Compl. Astrologer 28 Cabbage and kale should form part of a Capricornian's diet, keeping at bay such illnesses as rheumatism.

2007 Medicine 86 123 A total of 38 patients remained symptomatic after the tenth day [of chikungunya virus infection] with chronic peripheral rheumatism, characterized by severe joint pain and multiple tenosynovitis.

1835 J. L. Riddell Synopsis Flora Western States 11 Jeffersonia diphylla. Twin Leaf. Rheumatism root... Stimulant, diaphoretic, anti-rheumatic, anti-spasmodic. Chronic rheumatism especially.

1882 R. Bentley Man. Bot. (ed. 4) ii. iii. 693 The rhizome of D[ioscorea] villosa..commonly known as ‘rheumatism root’.

1964 New Castle (Pennsylvania) News 12 Nov. 22/6 The wildflower known as twin-leaf or rheumatism root, a perennial with white flowers, was named Jeffersonia diphylla in honor of Thomas Jefferson.

2007 B. Clement Hippocrates Lifeforce xi. 180 Wild Yam. Yam—also known as ‘China Root’ and ‘Rheumatism Root’—can be planted in soil and watered twice daily to create a sprouted vine.

1785 M. Cutler in Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1 444 Rheumatism-weed. Blossoms pale red. In wood land. It abounds near White-Mountains.

1867 Atlantic Monthly June 748/2 The umbellated pyrola, or rheumatism-weed, a plant that bears several whorls of bright evergreen leaves, surmounted with an umbel of beautiful nodding flowers.

1928 Morning Herald (Hagerstown, Maryland) 12 Sept. 2/2 ‘Pipsissewa’ or Rheumatism Weed, is one of the ingredients of [a] great tonic known as Orange Root.

2004 M. Anderson Diary Anc. Rites (2006) vii. 151 Pipsissewa is also called Pyrola umbellate, Prince's Pine, King's Cure, Ground Holly, and Love in Winter, Yevering Bell, and Rheumatism Weed.

1695 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 19 19 Those sharp and pungent Pains which Rheumatismatick Persons so generally complain of.

1859 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860) 1088/1 Rheumatismoid,..resembling rheumatism;..applied to symptoms of diseases which resemble those of rheumatism.

1872 J. Morgan Pract. Lessons 212 They may occur in the early stages of the constitutional infection, even before the secondary stage, and then are more fitly styled the rheumatismoid pains.

1903 Providence Med. Jrnl. 4 19 Diagnosis. Rheumatismoid arthritis with inflammation of the popliteal bursa.