WITH REVIEW OF RECENT LITERATURE*

PERIARTERITIS nodosa is an obliterative, inflammatory, vascular disease involving the small arteries and arterioles. Periarteritis nodosa is an inade-quate descriptive term since all coats of the vessel are involved, and since nodules may or may not be present. Polyarteritis is a more exact name. Polyarteritis is a rare condition, 350 cases having been reported up to 1942.41 Males are involved more frequently than females, in contrast to acute dis-seminated lupus erythematosus. It may occur at any age, having been re-ported from ages 1 to 79. Fifty per cent of the patients are in the fourth and fifth decades.8 Reports of cures are infrequent.17'22t 82 The mortality may be as high as 90-95 per cent, although with increasing recognition of mild or atypical cases, these figures will undoubtedly be considerably lower. Etiology. The etiology is unknown. Rich and his coworkers86 * have recently reproduced the condition in rabbits by sensitization to serum and to sulfonamides. They had previously noted the condition in patients who had received serum and sulfonamides or sulfonamides alone.86b Previous work