During my thirty-five years of experience as a hospital physician and in
private I have watched with special interest the fate of the numerous
cases of endocarditis which came under my charge, endeavouring as far as
possible to trace the later history of such cases for a lengthened
period. During the earlier years I merely treated the rheumatism,
believing, as I had been taught, that little or nothing could be done to
prevent disaster to the heart. I had the pain of discovering that many,
indeed most, of these cases merged into permanent valvular disease. This
distressing experience induced me to experiment on various methods of
preventive treatment. Of these, one has proved successful and has been
constantly employed by me for twenty years.