[Rheumatic diseases in colonial Mexico]

The medical texts published in New Spain between the XVI and XVIII century have not been searched until now for evidence of the existence of rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatic diseases before the descriptions made by Sydenham. We surveyed most of the medical books written and published in New Spain from the arrival of the Spaniards to the XVIII century, and we divided the diseases with articular manifestations into four groups, according to their main clinical characteristics: pain without swelling in anatomical region; pain without swelling in several joints; pain and swelling in joints, and joint complaints associated with contagious diseases. We found that a difference was established between gout and rheumatoid arthritis one hundred years before Sydenham, according to the different evolutions of both diseases, and we present one of the oldest descriptions of reactive arthritis.