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In recent preliminary communications (1) experimental data were presented showing that degenerative and proliferative lesions may be produced in the heart valves of the guinea pig by subjecting the animal to the combined influence of scurvy and a localized infection with hemolytic streptococci. Attention was directed to the fundamental similarity of the lesions so produced to those of rheumatic fever. Proliferative reactions were observed in the myocardium and pericardium that lent more support to the analogy. In addition it was briefly pointed out that a more or less prolonged inadequacy of vitamin C in the diet produces functional impairment and anatomic changes in the joints of the experimental animals. When the insult of infection was added to this disability the functional impairment and anatomic changes were accentuated. The lesions in the joints were noted to be of a type consistent with those of rheumatic fever. No physiologic impairment or lesions developed in the joints of animals subjected to the same infection if maintained on a diet with adequate vitamin C supplement. This suggestive experimental evidence naturally led to an analysis of other data which might support the view that scurvy may bear a relation to rheumatic fever. It was pointed out that such a concept would appear to afford an explanation for the epidemiological peculiarities of rheumatic fever. Certain similarities in the symptomatology of latent scurvy and the prerheumatic or early

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