[Mayer S. Diamantberger (1864-1944). The first person to describe juvenile chronic arthritis].

UNLABELLED: No evidence can be found in the medical textbooks from the beginning of the twentieth century that rheumatoid arthritis can also occur in children. Isolated cases were first published in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the Hôpital Rothschild in Paris several children with this disease were observed and nursed within a short period of time. M.S. Diamantberger, an assistant in this hospital, was intensively involved with these patients and analyzed all previously published cases. This was the theme of his dissertation which was first made public in 1890 and was published in 1891. Diamantberger proved for the first time that there are three totally different types of course in children and particularly mentioned the form affecting the internal organs and the eyes. Therefore he had described the so-called systemic form 6 years before Still and anticipated the oligarthritis accompanying inflammation of the eye. Diamantberger's work found wide acceptance in the French specialist literature. In 1988 this was reprinted in book form, nearly 100 years after the first publication. Nevertheless, only few clinicians in Germany have taken note of this and in the Anglo-American literature Diamantberger has remained unknown. Even today his name is not to be found neither in standard reference works on rheumatology nor in textbooks on pediatrics and the history of medicine. Another Parisian clinician, A. Chauffard, did not fare any better. He reported in 1896 on a systemic form of chronic polyarthritis in adults, the discovery of which is world-wide accredited to E. Bywaters in 1971.
CONCLUSION: Many French authors were victims of the language barrier.