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TO THE EDITOR:— I have read with interest the paper on the relationship of hyperuricemia to hypercholesteremia and acute myocardial infarction by Kohn and Prozan (J. A. M. A.170:1909-1912 [Aug. 15] 1959). The authors implied that the hyperuricemia seen in their patients was a hereditary defect and gave no information as to other possible causes of hyperuricemia in this group. Hyperuricemia may be due to several causes other than heredity. The most common is chronic renal insufficiency. It would be of great interest to learn the frequency of blood urea nitrogen elevation among the 50 patients reported on in this paper. Also information should be given as to the possible presence of blood dyscrasias that are associated with hyperuricemia (Talbott: Medicine38:173 [May] 1959; Gutman: Ann. Int. Med.39:1062 [Nov.] 1953). Finally, in a group of patients with acute myocardial infarction, it is possible that some

A note on the genealogy of the Primer: This is the sixth Primer on the Rheumatic Diseases to be published in The Journalof the American Medical Association.1-5 The first of these six appeared in 1942 and was titled Primer on Arthritis.1 This abecedarium, identified by its authors as the "Second Primer on Arthritis," represented a revision of the Primer on Rheumatism, Chronic Arthritis, which had been issued in 1934 by the American Committee for the Control of Rheumatism (forerunner of the American Rheumatism Association Section of The Arthritis Foundation). This latter work, generally considered the first of the Primers, was a brochure that had been prepared for distribution in connection with a scientific exhibit on arthritis at the Annual Convention of the American Medical Association.6In fact, there were were two earlier publications in this line by the American Committee for the Control of Rheumatism. The first of these (What is Rheumatism?) was printed in 1928, and the second (Rheumatism Primer: Chronic Arthritis) was privately distributed in 1932.6