In 1916 Reiter1described a clinical entity in a German lieutenant characterized by abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea, followed by urethritis, conjunctivitis, and later by arthritis of the left knee, right elbow, left wrist, and joints of the fingers of the right hand in that order. Subsequently cystitis, edema of the prepuce, iritis, splenomegaly, and pustular lesions of the hip also developed in this patient. Reiter was unable to influence the course of the disease by any therapy at his command, but recognized that the symptoms did not result from either gonorrhea or dysentery. About the same time Fiessinger and Leroy2in France and Macfie3in Africa made independent reports of this disease. Many reports of this syndrome followed in the French, German, and Scandinavian literature, but it was not until 1942 that the disease was recognized in America and reported by Bauer and Engleman.4Since