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Textbook Scleroderma From Pathogenesis To Comprehensive Management 2Nd Edition John Varga Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Scleroderma From Pathogenesis To Comprehensive Management 2Nd Edition John Varga Ebook All Chapter PDF
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John Varga
Christopher P. Denton
Fredrick M. Wigley
Yannick Allanore
Masataka Kuwana
Editors
Scleroderma
From Pathogenesis
to Comprehensive
Management
Second Edition
123
Scleroderma
Second Edition
John Varga • Christopher P. Denton
Fredrick M. Wigley • Yannick Allanore
Masataka Kuwana
Editors
Scleroderma
From Pathogenesis to Comprehensive
Management
Second Edition
Editors
John Varga Yannick Allanore
Feinberg School of Medicine Service de Rhumatologie A, INSERMU1016
Northwestern University Universit. Paris Descartes, Hôpital Cochin
Chicago, Illinois Paris
USA France
Fredrick M. Wigley
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
USA
Scleroderma, or systemic sclerosis, is a true multisystem disease that requires integrated mul-
tidisciplinary management including rheumatology, cardiology, renal and thoracic medicine
and gastroenterology as well as other medical specialties and healthcare professionals. It also
has a peculiarly cruel impact on quality of life and the potential to take a dreadful toll on
affected patients and their families. No one who has come across the disease in a severe form
will ever underestimate its importance or clinical impact. However, it is uncommon and there
is a great need for high-quality resources to educate and inform about the disease. I learnt dur-
ing a medical career dedicated to improving understanding and treatment of scleroderma the
tremendous importance of integrated management including all of these disciplines and also
that to really advance understanding of scleroderma it was critical to align clinical practice and
fundamental clinical and laboratory research.
As a young junior doctor in my first clinical post, I came across scleroderma when a young
woman was admitted under my care with scleroderma renal crisis. I was disturbed to learn from
the professor of medicine that there was no effective treatment and that she would be dead within
3 months. This was the case, and this incident sowed in my mind the seeds of curiosity about this
potentially devastating disease and determination to seek ways to do more. There have been
enormous strides in managing scleroderma over the past four decades, and a patient presenting
with the same clinical problem to a modern scleroderma unit could expect to survive and have a
much better outcome. However, it remains one of the most challenging of the rheumatic diseases
and one that still has to reveal much about the underlying cause and mechanism.
I have personally witnessed progress in understanding and managing scleroderma in its
diverse forms and would have relished access to this textbook earlier in my career as I estab-
lished one of the first units in the UK that specializes in scleroderma and later was involved in
developing the pulmonary hypertension service in our hospital that has made a major contribu-
tion to treatment and improving outcome for patients developing this important complication.
In my professional life, I have taken on new challenges over recent years and moved into other
areas of academic, medical, and government endeavor. This has focused on the tremendous
impact that health issues have on ability to work and participate in society and brings the indi-
vidual impact of a disease such as scleroderma into sharp focus.
The first edition of this textbook was a masterful integration of basic science and clinical
practice, and the second edition builds upon this model but includes new sections, including
clinical case summaries, that bridge the gap between the pathology and biological basis of
disease and clinical impact. It provides a very clear demonstration of progress in managing
major and life-threatening aspects of this disease and highlights the important links between
scleroderma and other medical conditions. I am delighted to write this foreword for the second
edition of what has emerged as the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on this disease,
spanning pathogenesis to clinical management of scleroderma. It more than lives up to expec-
tation and I am sure that it will help prepare and stimulate more healthcare professionals and
scientists to work on the disease and further improve treatments and outcome.
Professor Dame Carol Black
Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, UK
Emeritus Professor of Rheumatology, UCL Division of Medicine, London, UK
vii
Foreword from Bob Saget
I am so honored to have been asked by the Editors to write a foreword for what will shortly
become the premier book on scleroderma now in existence …written for doctors, scientists and
patients.
Scleroderma is a disease that is very close to my heart, having lost my sister, Gay, to it in
1994 at only 47 years old. She was initially misdiagnosed and treated without full knowledge
of the latest clinical trials and forward thinking that can try to help patients stricken with this
complex disease.
I have had the pleasure over the years to shoot two short documentaries that were used to
raise awareness and to raise much needed funds to support research around the country.
The authors of this book are the forerunners in scleroderma research and clinical trials. The
doctors who have written this second new and revised edition are making a significant contri-
bution. One that I trust rheumatologists and doctors who come across scleroderma, no matter
their discipline, will take note of and read cover to cover.
I would like to acknowledge all the contributors and thank the editors of this book—the
very smartest and passionate Doctors—Dr. John Varga, Dr. Chris Denton, Dr. Yannick Allanore,
Dr. Masataka Kuwana, and Dr. Fredrick Wigley.
I became familiar with scleroderma several years before my sister Gay came down with it.
Twenty-five years ago I met a woman who was to become one of the dearest friends of my life,
Sharon Monsky. She was the founder and then CEO of the Scleroderma Research Foundation.
A great woman, mother of three, who’d been stricken with the disease as a young mom.
Sharon cold-called me to perform standup at a benefit in Santa Monica, which she had
titled, “Cool Comedy Hot Cuisine.” I had never met her before. I knew nothing about sclero-
derma. She explained the word scleroderma meant “hard skin.” She told me that it affects
mostly women in the prime of their lives. That it was a difficult disease to pinpoint—some
called it “auto-immune,” some used the word “vascular,” and she also said it occasionally
struck people living in the same area and in some rare cases, people in the same family.
The only way to raise money for research was to do what most people do in this situation—
have benefits and try to raise the much needed money to fund cutting edge research that goes
to helping find a cure, or at the very best, ways to put the disease into some kind of remission
in its victims.
Soon as she explained to me what the benefit was, I said “yes” over the phone and since
have been involved in her foundation’s signature event: a night of comedians and amazing food
by chefs and friends—with the idea that the best way to deal with this difficult disease was to
try and raise money for research through humor.
The beautiful Robin Williams was the first performer to give of himself to perform for this
cause I had yet to have strike my family directly. After I started doing the benefit as a comedian
and then its host for twenty-four years, Robin had come to do the event seven times and Top
Chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken have been amazing. The first year I performed,
Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell were performing as well. It was such a moving night
for me personally and I have since hosted it over thirty times to this day. I am also a proud
board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation and these events called “Cool Comedy
Hot Cuisine” are the main fundraisers we have to raise money for research.
ix
x Foreword from Bob Saget
Just a couple years forward from that first night I did the benefit from that cold-call, my
sister Gay had to move back to LA from Bucks County, PA… To move back in with our par-
ents, as a forty-four-year-old woman, so they could help her try and get better medical care
than she’d been receiving. She had finally been diagnosed with this disease I had connected
with seemingly out of nowhere.
So just three years after I even found out what “scleroderma” was, my sister was sitting in
the audience at the benefit, now actually diagnosed as having this orphan disease. One year
later, she lost her life to it. I couldn’t believe that this happened. It snuck up on her and a year
later she was on a decline that ended just two years later. It’s how many of us get involved with
a cause that cuts us deep to the bone.
I wanted to do something about it. Share our family’s story with others and let them know
that they aren’t alone in this battle that—like any disease, makes you feel completely alone. So,
in 1996, I directed a television movie for ABC called, “For Hope,” a story “loosely based” on
events that “directly” affected my family. The writer was my friend Susan Rice, the producer,
the dear Karen Moore. And the cast was extraordinary: Dana Delany, Henry Czerny, Polly
Bergen, and Harold Gould basically playing my parents, and Chris Demetral representing my
nephew, Adam. And my dear friend, Sharon Monsky, playing “herself.” It was a very emo-
tional and fulfilling project, a poignant moment in my life, one that I will always treasure. And
through my work with helping to fund research for this disease—coming into contact with so
many people who have it –I believe that TV movie helped put scleroderma on the map for
some. Still, it’s such a long road for the hundreds of thousands of people who have scleroderma
in its many incarnations.
Once Sharon passed away thirteen years ago, I knew then I would be working the rest of my
life to do whatever I could to help those affected with scleroderma.
Thanks to research, new drugs, and new therapies have since been developed, helping thou-
sands of those struggling with this sometimes fatal disease that there still is no known cure for.
Pharmaceutical companies have developed several drugs to deal specifically with the symp-
toms of scleroderma, mainly the biggest killer of its patients, pulmonary arterial hypertension
(PAH), a chronic, progressive, and debilitating rare lung disease that can lead to death or the
need for transplantation. So real progress has been made since I started trying to help decades
ago.
After the loss of my sister, I have had the good fortune of meeting hundreds, maybe a thou-
sand scleroderma patients—who I feel connected to on a deep level. As though it’s some sort
of horrific rite of passage to be in “this club.” I cannot bear to think of what people go through
when their loved ones are hit with this disease that still needs so much attention and funding.
We have all been touched beyond words by all of the comedians who have given their time
to perform to get money to support research.
So many dear friends who have been there for me and helped many with scleroderma
through the support given to research: Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Dana Carvey,
Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Jeff Garlin, Jeff Ross, John Mayer, Jim Gaffigan,
Michael Che, Jimmy Fallon, Rodney Dangerfield, Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld, Conan
O’Brien, Craig Ferguson, Jon Stewart, Lily Tomlin, Pat Monahan and Train, The Goo Goo
Dolls, Adam Duritz and Counting Crows, and most recently, Andy Cohen, Michael Che and
Louie C.K.
No one should have to suffer as my sister Gay did, who lost her life at 47. My heart goes out
to the patients and families of those afflicted by this terrible disease—they always say “terrible
disease,” yet as we all know, there are no “good” ones.
I will spend the rest of my life dedicated to helping support the best medical minds in sci-
ence as we try to fund what will one day be a day that we all would love to see happen in our
lifetime: to find a cure.
Foreword from Bob Saget xi
I am deeply indebted to all of the doctors, both contributing writers as well as the brilliant
editors, all working so diligently in sharing their research and advanced knowledge of a dis-
ease that can take so many lives. And thanks to the hard work of these exceptional doctors who
have created this book, more lives can be saved, and more progress will be made.
I just want all other doctors around the world to read it, so they are up to date with where
we are now, not where we were ten years ago in treating a scleroderma patient. I do believe my
sister may have been alive today if the regime of medicine that was cast upon her had the
knowledge that is within these pages.
My good fortune is I get to be a small part of this big picture– this book. It is a monumental
and defining work and I am so proud to have been asked to write this foreword. And now,
enough from me, enjoy reading this, created by the people who are truly making a difference
that will change the lives of so many.
Bob Saget
Preface to the First Edition
Scleroderma remains the most enigmatic and challenging of all rheumatic diseases and the one
associated with the greatest burden of morbidity and mortality. Despite decades of intense
clinical and basic research, and dozens of clinical trials, the causes and pathophysiology of the
disease had remained, until recently, largely beyond our grasp, and effective disease modifying
therapies are still lacking. The reasons for slow progress in scleroderma are many. They include
the remarkable heterogeneity of the disease, its protean and multisystemic manifestations, its
low prevalence and orphan disease status, the lack of animal models, low level of public aware-
ness, and so on. Moreover, government investment in scleroderma research has, until recently,
lagged behind other comparable diseases; likewise, the pharmaceutical industry has histori-
cally viewed scleroderma as a limited market. In the absence of dramatic research advances
and faced with disappointing results from clinical trials, a nihilistic attitude toward sclero-
derma took hold in some circles. Upon receiving a diagnosis of scleroderma, patients were not
infrequently informed that “there is no treatment for scleroderma” and denied access to poten-
tially effective interventions or the opportunity to participate in clinical trials.
Fortunately, the scleroderma landscape is now changing rapidly. Indeed, readers of this
book will be convinced that the future for scleroderma research and for affected patients has
never been brighter. The book highlights the concurrent advances on many fronts that explain
this sea-change. Discoveries from the laboratory have led, during the past decade, to the iden-
tification and characterization of a plethora of new molecules, pathways, and cell types as criti-
cal players in the diverse manifestations of scleroderma. This line of research has been
energized by the recent application of “omics” such as genomics and proteomics that allow
large-scale, hypothesis-free examination of tens of thousands of molecular components, each
representing a potential target for therapy. Increasingly powerful genetic association studies
are shedding light on the genetic factors associated with scleroderma, including the identifica-
tion of specific genes and alleles, and in the near future, of epigenetic changes reflecting the
interplay of environment with the genome. Genetic engineering is making it possible to gener-
ate complex mouse strains to model particular scleroderma traits such as fibrosis, inflamma-
tion, autoimmunity, and vasculopathy. Meticulous evaluation of novel transgenic mice is likely
to yield fresh insights into pathogenesis, including the mechanistic bases of distinct disease
manifestations. Moreover, innovative animal models provide appealing experimental plat-
forms for preclinical testing of novel anti-inflammatory, vasoprotective, and antifibrotic drugs.
The vital bench-to-bedside research continuum is alive, and basic discoveries are translated
into clinical trials at an increasingly rapid pace.
Enormously powerful analytic platforms, such as microchip DNA arrays to examine genetic
polymorphisms or genome-wide changes at the tissue level, now allow investigators to probe
disease heterogeneity at the molecular level. These studies, as elegantly illustrated in this book,
reveal a surprising and unsuspected level of complexity and heterogeneity in scleroderma.
While new insights often challenge existing paradigms, they open the door for vital progress
in disease subclassification and phenotyping that in turn enhances our ability to target specific
interventions to predefined patient subsets. They also make it possible to identify and validate
novel biomarkers, and to develop novel treatment strategies, including drug repurposing.
Integration of laboratory-based reductionist research with hypothesis-free omics surveys on
xiii
xiv Preface to the First Edition
the one hand and patient phenotyping with meticulous clinical, laboratory, serologic, and path-
ological data collection on the other hand will be vital. Optimal research integration will
require real-time coordination among clinical centers and research laboratories and is vitally
dependent on shared access to robust registries, databanks, and linked biorepositories. We
must be realistic in appreciating the challenges, including the cost, of developing and main-
taining requisite infrastructures. These efforts can only succeed with long-term commitment.
Steady advances reflect the enthusiasm and dedication of the community of scleroderma
researchers, clinicians, advocates, and patients working in tandem with governmental agen-
cies, and, increasingly, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.
Although truly effective disease-modifying interventions are lacking and a single “magic
bullet” for scleroderma is unlikely, disease management is improving, as reflected in better
quality of life and survival for patients with scleroderma. The need for comprehensive care to
address the totality of the disease is increasingly appreciated. Optimal management should
include a holistic approach encompassing nutrition, psychological aspects, exercise, physical
and occupational therapy, and sleep optimization to reduce suffering and disability. This book
showcases these advances and highlights evidence-based contemporary clinical recommenda-
tions, practice guidelines, diagnostic and screening strategies, and innovative approaches to
patient care. Each of the chapters is informed by the need to integrate emerging understanding
of pathophysiology with the latest advances in clinical practice.
The contributors to this book represent an exceptionally broad spectrum of expertise and
come from many countries. Together, the 52 chapters reflect a contemporary global perspec-
tive and provide a comprehensive view of scleroderma: where we are and where we are headed.
We believe that, having perused this book, the reader will be as impressed as the editors are
that we are at the threshold of an era of unprecedented progress in scleroderma.
Finally, a word about the name for the disease that is the subject of this book. Originally
called scleroderma, the disease came to be called “progressive systemic sclerosis” and more
recently “systemic sclerosis” to illustrate the important role of fibrosis as a hallmark feature
and to emphasize the striking systemic nature of the disease. We however use the term “sclero-
derma” throughout. There are several reasons for this. In conversations with physicians, scien-
tists, and health-care providers around the world, “scleroderma” seems to resonate most of all
the alternate terms. Advocacy and patient support groups prefer this term, as do most patients
with the diagnosis. Finally, let’s face it, “systemic sclerosis” is a mouthful, whereas “sclero-
derma” is succinct and carries a certain austere elegance. So, while in full recognition that
scleroderma is a systemic disease and is not to be confused with localized scleroderma, we
have chosen to stick with this name.
xv
xvi Preface to the Second Edition
We wish to express our gratitude for the editorial assistance provided by Pam Hill
(Baltimore), Elise Paxson (Philadelphia), and Margaret Moore (New York). Without their ded-
ication, hard work, and unfailing patience, this book would not have come to fruition.
6-MP 6-mercaptopurine
6MWT 6-minute walk test
α-SMA α-smooth muscle actin
ACA Anticentromere antibodies
ACR American College of Rheumatology
ACT Acceptance and commitment therapy
ACTD Autoimmune connective tissue diseases
ACVR1B Activin A receptor, type IB
ADAM Adamalysines
ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
ADM Antroduodenal manometry
AE Adverse events
AECA Antiendothelial cell antibodies
AECG American-European Conesus Group
AFA Antifibrillarin antibodies
AGE Glycation/lipoperoxidation end product
AGTRL2 Angiotensin receptor-like 2
AHA Antihistone antibodies
AIF1 Allograft inflammatory factor 1
AIH Autoimmune hepatitis
AKI Acute kidney injury
ALK Anti-liver-kidney microsome
AMA Antimitochondrial antibody
ANA Antinuclear antibody
ANS Autonomic nervous system
anti-Scl70 antitopoisomerase 1 antibodies
APC Antigen-presenting cell or argon plasma coagulation
APRIL A proliferation-inducing ligand
APS Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome
ARB Angiotensin receptor blocker
ARHB Ras homolog gene family, member B
ASCT Autologous stem cell transplantation
aSSC Adult onset systemic sclerosis
AST Aspartate aminotransferase
ASTIS Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation International Scleroderma
ATG5 Autophagy-related 5
AUC Area under the curve
autoAb Autoantibodies
AV Atrioventricular
AVNRT Atrioventricular reentry tachycardia
BAFF B-cell activating factor
BAL Bronchoalveolar lavage
xvii
xviii Abbreviations
MCP Metacarpophalangeal
MCTD Mixed connective tissue disease
MDC Macrophage-derived chemokine
mDC Myeloid DC
MDCT Multidetector computed tomography
MDD Major depressive disorder
MDRD Modification of diet in renal disease
MECP2 Methyl-CpG-binding protein 2
MEF2 Myocyte enhancing factor 2
MHC Major histocompatibility complex
MHISS Mouth handicap in systemic sclerosis scale
MINI Mini-international neuropsychiatric interview
MIP Macrophage inflammatory protein
mLoSSI Modified localized scleroderma skin severity index
MMC Myoelectric complexes
MMF Mycophenolate mofetil
MMP-1 Matrix metalloproteinase-1
MOA Mechanism of action
mPAP Mean pulmonary artery pressure
MPP Methylprednisolone
MRA Magnetic resonance angiography
MREc Magnetic resonance enteroclysis
MREg Magnetic resonance enterography
MRI Magnetic resonance imaging
MRSA Methionine sulfoxide reductase A
MRSB Methionine sulfoxide reductase B
mRss Modified Rodnan skin score
MSC Mesenchymal stem cell
MTX Methotrexate
MUST Malnutrition universal screening tool
MVEC Microvascular endothelial cell
MZ Monozygotic
NASH Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis
NBUVB Narrowband UVB treatment
NCI National Cancer Institute
NCS Nerve conduction studies
Nd:YAG Neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnet
NDA New drug application
NFD Nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy
NFS Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis
NIH National Institutes of Health
NIH PROMIS National Institute of Health Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement
System
NK Natural killer
NLR NOD-like receptors
NME New medical entity
NOS Nitric oxide synthase
NPWT Negative pressure wound therapy
NRH Nodular regenerative hyperplasia
NSAID Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug
NSF Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis
NSIP Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia
NTproBNP N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide
Abbreviations xxiii
Part I Introduction
xxvii
xxviii Contents
32 Calcinosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Antonia Valenzuela and Lorinda Chung
33 Evaluation and Management of Skin Disease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Noëlle S. Sherber and Fredrick M. Wigley
34 Assessment and Management of Progressive Skin Involvement
in Diffuse Scleroderma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Robert W. Simms
35 Skeletal Muscle Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
Andrew L. Mammen
36 Tendons, Joints, and Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Jérôme Avouac, Maya H. Buch, and Yannick Allanore
37 Cancer in Systemic Sclerosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Ami A. Shah and Masataka Kuwana
38 Overlooked Manifestations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Edward V. Lally, Ami A. Shah, and Fredrick M. Wigley
39 Pregnancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Eliza F. Chakravarty and Virginia Steen
xxxi
xxxii Contributors
Vanessa C. Delisle, MSc Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, McGill University
and Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada
Christopher P. Denton, PhD, FRCP Division of Medicine, Department of Inflammation,
Centre for Rheumatology and Connective Tissue Diseases, UCL Division of Medicine, Royal
Free Hospital, London, UK
Jörg H.W. Distler, MD Department of Internal Medicine, University of Erlangen-
Nuremberg, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
Oliver Distler, MD Division of Rheumatology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich,
Switzerland
Rucsandra Dobrota, MD Division of Rheumatology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich,
Switzerland
Department of Internal Medicine and Rheumatology, Carol Davila University of Medicine
and Pharmacy, Cantacuzino Hospital, Bucharest, Romania
Robyn T. Domsic, MD, MPH Department of Medicine/Rheumatology and Clinical
Immunology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Harrison W. Farber, MD Pulmonary Hypertension Center, Boston University Medical
Center, Boston, MA, USA
Carol Feghali-Bostwick, PhD Department of Medicine, Medical University of South
Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
Ivan Foeldvari, MD Hamburg Centre for Pediatric Rheumatology, Head of the Juvenile
Scleroderma Working Group (JSScWG), Hamburger Zentrum Für Kinder- und
Jugendrheumatologie, Hamburg, Germany
Rina S. Fox, MS, MPH SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical
Psychology, San Diego, CA, USA
Jaap Fransen, PhD Departments of Rheumatology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical
Center and Sint Maartenskliniek, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Daniel E. Furst, MD Department of Rheumatology, University of California, Los Angeles,
Los Angeles, CA, USA
N. Nazzareno Galié, MD Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty
Medicine-DIMES, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Shadi Gholizadeh, MS, MSc SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical
Psychology, San Diego, CA, USA
Lauren V. Graham, MD, PhD Department of Dermatology, Northwestern University,
McGraw Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA
Faye N. Hant, DO, MSCR Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Medical
University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
Elizabeth Harrison, MB, ChB Institute of Inflammation and Repair, University
of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Ariane L. Herrick, MD, FRCP Centre for Musculoskeletal Research,
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre,
The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Kristin B. Highland, MD, MSCR Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine,
Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA
Contributors xxxiii
IV
Oh, but those days when he had been working and scheming to
get up in the world and was thinking that money was the great thing
—the only thing! Those impossible wooden towns in the Northwest
and elsewhere in which he had lived and worked, and those worse
hotels and boarding-houses—always hunting, hunting for money or
the key to it. The greasy, stinking craft in which he had made his way
up weedy and muddy rivers in Honduras and elsewhere—looking for
what? Snakes, mosquitoes, alligators, tarantulas, horned toads and
lizards. In Honduras he had slept under chiqua trees on mats of
chiqua leaves, with only a fire to keep away snakes and other things.
And of a morning he had chased away noisy monkeys and
parroquets from nearby branches with rotten fruit so as to sleep a
little longer. Alone, he had tramped through fever swamps, pursued
by Pequi Indians, who wanted only the contents of his wretched
pack. And he had stared at huge coyal palms, a hundred feet high,
with the great feathery leaves fifteen feet long and their golden
flowers three feet high. Ah, well, that was over now. He had shot the
quetzal with its yellow tail feathers three feet long and had traded
them for food. Once he had all but died of fever in a halfbreed’s hut
back of Cayo. And the halfbreed had then stolen his gun and razor
and other goods and left him to make his way onward as best he
might. That was life for you, just like that. People were like that.
And it was during that time that he had come to realize that by no
honest way at his age was he likely to come to anything financially.
Roaming about the drowsy, sun-baked realm, he had encountered
Messner, an American and a fugitive, he guessed, and it was
Messner who had outlined to him the very scheme by which he had
been able, later, to amass his first quick fortune in New York. It was
Messner who had told him of Torbey and how he had come up to
London from Central Africa to offer shares in a bogus rubber
enterprise based on immense forests which he was supposed to
have found in the wilds of Africa yet which did not exist. And it was
the immense though inaccessible rubber forests in Honduras that
had inspired him to try the same thing in New York. Why not? A new
sucker was born every minute, and he had all to gain and nothing to
lose. Messner said that Torbey had advertised for a widow with some
money to push his enterprise, whereupon he had proceeded to tell
the London speculative public of his treasure and to sell two pound
shares for as low as ten shillings in order to show tremendous rises
in value—to issue two million pounds’ worth of absolutely worthless
stock.
By these methods and by having the stock listed on the London
curb he was able to induce certain curb or “dog” brokers to go short
of this stock without having any of it in their possession. Finally they
began to sell so freely and to pay so little attention to the amount that
was being sold that it was easy for Torbey to employ agents to buy
from all of them freely on margin. And then, as the law of the curb
and the state permitted, he had demanded (through them, of course)
the actual delivery of the shares, the full curb value of the stock
being offered. Of course the brokers had none, although they had
sold thousands; nor had any one else except Torbey, who had seen
to it that all outstanding stock had been recalled to his safe. That
meant that they must come to Torbey to buy or face a jail sentence,
and accordingly they had flocked to his office, only to be properly
mulcted for the total face value of the shares when they came.
Well, he had done that same thing in New York. Following the
example of the good Torbey, he had picked up a few unimportant
options in Honduras, far from any railroad, and had come to New
York to launch Calamita. Just as Torbey had done, he had looked for
a rich widow, a piano manufacturer’s wife in this case, and had
persuaded her that there were millions in it. From her he had gone
on to Wall Street and the curb and had done almost exactly as
Torbey had done.... Only that fellow De Malquit had killed himself,
and that was not so pleasant. He hadn’t anticipated that anything like
that would happen! That unfortunate wife of his. And those two
children made orphans. That was the darkest spot. He hadn’t known,
of course, that De Malquit himself was helping orphans—or—And
from there he had gone on to the forests of Washington and Oregon,
where he had bought immense tracts on which even yet he was
realizing, more and more. And from there it had been an easy step to
oil in southern California and Mexico—Ah, Greasadick, another sad
case!—And from there to mines and government concessions in
Peru and Ecuador, and the still greater ones in Argentina and Chile.
Money came fast to those who had it. At last, having accumulated a
fortune of at least nine millions, he had been able to interest Nadia,
and through her the clever and well-to-do fashionable set who had
backed his projects with their free capital. And by now his fortune
had swollen to almost forty millions.
But what of it? Could he say he was really content? What was he
getting out of it? Life was so deceptive; it used and then tossed one
aside. At first it had seemed wonderful to be able to go, do, act, buy
and sell as he chose, without considering anything save whether the
thing he was doing was agreeable and profitable. He had thought
that pleasure would never pall, but it had. There was this thing about
age, that it stole over one so unrelentingly, fattening one up or
thinning one down, hardening the arteries and weakening the
muscles and blood, until it was all but useless to go on. And what
was the import of his success, anyhow, especially to one who had no
children and no friends worthy of the name? There was no such
thing as true friendship in nature. It was each man for himself,
everywhere, and the devil take the hindmost. It was life that used
and tossed one aside, however great or powerful one might be.
There was no staying life or the drift of time.
Of course there had been the pleasure of building two great
houses for Nadia and living in them when he was not living in other
parts of the world. But all that had come too late; he had been too
old to enjoy them when they did come. She had been a great catch
no doubt, but much too attractive to be really interested in him at his
age. His wealth had been the point with her—any one could see that;
he knew it at the time and would not now try to deceive himself as to
that. At the time he had married her she had had social position
whereas he had none. And after she married him all her social
influence, to be sure, had been used to advance his cause. Still, that
scheme of hers to get him to leave his great fortune to those two
worthless sons of hers. Never! They were not worthy of it. Those
dancing, loafing wasters! He would see to it that his fortune was put
to some better use than that. He would leave it to orphans rather
than to them, for after all orphans in his employ had proved more
valuable to him than even they had, hadn’t they?—That curious
fellow, De Malquit!—So long ago. Besides wasn’t it Nadia’s two sons
who had influenced their mother to interest herself in D’Eyraud, the
architect who had built their two houses and had started Nadia off on
that gallery idea. And not a picture in it that would interest a sensible
person. And wasn’t it because of her that he had never troubled to
answer the letters of his sister Elvira asking him to educate her two
boys for her. He had fancied at the time that taking her two children
into his life would in some way affect his social relations with Nadia
and her set. And now Elvira was dead and he did not know where
the children were. He could charge that to her if he wanted to,
couldn’t he?
Well, life was like that. When he had built his two great houses he
had thought they would prove an immense satisfaction to him, as
they had for a time; but he would not be here much longer now to
enjoy them. He wasn’t nearly as active as he had been, and the sight
of the large companies of people that came to pose and say silly
things to each other was very wearying. They were always civil to
him, of course, but little more. They wanted the influence of his
name. And as long as he permitted it, his homes would be haunted
by those who wished to sell him things—stocks, bonds, enterprises,
tapestries, estates, horses. And those two boys of hers, along with
Nadia herself where her so-called art objects were concerned, so
busy encouraging them! Well, he was done with all that now. He
would not be bothered. Even youth and beauty of a venal character
had appeared on the scene and had attempted to set traps for him.
But his day was over. All these fripperies and pleasures were for
people younger than he. It required youth and energy to see beauty
and romance in such things, and he hadn’t a trace of either left. His
day was over and he might as well die, really, for all the good he
was, apart from his money, to any one.
W HAT had given him his first hint that all might not be as well at
home as he imagined was the incident of the automobile. Up to
that time he had not had a troubled thought about her, not one. But
after—Well, it was a year and a half now and although suspicion still
lingered it was becoming weaker. But it had not been obliterated
even though he could not help being fond of Beryl, especially since
they had Tickles to look after between them. But anyhow, in spite of
all his dark thoughts and subtle efforts to put two and two together,
he had not been able to make anything of it. Perhaps he was being
unjust to her to go on brooding about it.... But how was it possible
that so many suspicious-looking things could happen in a given time,
and one never be able to get the straight of them?
The main thing that had hampered him was his work. He was
connected with the Tri-State Paper Company, at the City Order desk,
and as a faithful employé he was not supposed to leave during
working hours without permission, and it was not always easy to get
permission. It was easy to count the times he had been off—once to
go to the dentist, and two or three times to go home when Beryl was
ill. Yet it just happened that on that particular afternoon his superior,
Mr. Baggott, had suggested that he, in the place of Naigly who
always attended to such matters but was away at the time, should
run out to the Detts-Scanlon store and ask Mr. Pierce just what was
wrong with that last order that had been shipped. There was a mix-
up somewhere, and it had been impossible to get the thing straight
over the telephone.
Well, just as he was returning to the office, seated in one of those
comfortable cross seats of the Davenant Avenue line and looking at
the jumble of traffic out near Blakely Avenue, and just as the car was
nearing the entrance to Briscoe Park he saw a tan-and-chocolate-
colored automobile driven by a biggish man in a light tan overcoat
and cap swing into view, cross in front of the car, and enter the park.
It was all over in a flash. But just as the car swung near him who
should he see sitting beside the man but Beryl, or certainly a woman
who was enough like her to be her twin sister. He would have sworn
it was Beryl. And what was more, and worse, she was smiling up at
this man as though they were on the best of terms and had known
each other a long time! Of course he had only had a glimpse, and
might have been mistaken. Beryl had told him that morning that she
was going to spend the afternoon with her mother. She often did
that, sometimes leaving Tickles there while she did her mother’s
marketing. Or, she and her mother, or she and her sister Alice, if she
chanced to be there, would take the baby for a walk in the park. Of
course he might have been mistaken.
But that hat with the bunch of bright green grapes on the side....
And that green-and-white striped coat.... And that peculiar way in
which she always held her head when she was talking. Was it really
Beryl? If it wasn’t, why should he have had such a keen conviction
that it was?
Up to that time there never had been anything of a doubtful
character between them—that is, nothing except that business of the
Raskoffsky picture, which didn’t amount to much in itself. Anybody
might become interested in a great violinist and write him for his
photo, though even that couldn’t be proved against Beryl. It was
inscribed to Alice. But even if she had written him, that wasn’t a
patch compared to this last, her driving about in a car with a strange
man. Certainly that would justify him in any steps that he chose to
take, even to getting a divorce.
But what had he been able to prove so far? Nothing. He had tried
to find her that afternoon, first at their own house, then at her
mother’s, and then at Winton & Marko’s real estate office, where
Alice sometimes helped out, but he couldn’t find a trace of her. Still,
did that prove anything once and for all? She might have been to the
concert as she said, she and Alice. It must be dull to stay in the
house all day long, anyhow, and he couldn’t blame her for doing the
few things she did within their means. Often he tried to get in touch
with her of a morning or afternoon, and there was no answer, seeing
that she was over to her mother’s or out to market, as she said. And
up to the afternoon of the automobile it had never occurred to him
that there was anything queer about it. When he called up Beryl’s
mother she had said that Beryl and Alice had gone to a concert and
it wasn’t believable that Mrs. Dana would lie to him about anything.
Maybe the two of them were doing something they shouldn’t, or
maybe Alice was helping Beryl to do something she shouldn’t,
without their mother knowing anything about it. Alice was like that,
sly. It was quite certain that if there had been any correspondence
between Beryl and that man Raskoffsky, that time he had found the
picture inscribed to Alice, it had been Alice who had been the go-
between. Alice had probably allowed her name and address to be
used for Beryl’s pleasure—that is, if there was anything to it at all. It
wasn’t likely that Beryl would have attempted anything like that
without Alice’s help.
But just the same he had never been able to prove that they had
been in league, at that time or any other. If there was anything in it
they were too clever to let him catch them. The day he thought he
had seen her in the car he had first tried to get her by telephone and
then had gone to the office, since it was on his way, to get
permission to go home for a few minutes. But what had he gained by
it? By the time he got there, Beryl and her mother were already
there, having just walked over from Mrs. Dana’s home, according to
Beryl. And Beryl was not wearing the hat and coat he had seen in
the car, and that was what he wanted to find out. But between the
time he had called up her mother and the time he had managed to
get home she had had time enough to return and change her clothes
and go over to her mother’s if there was any reason why she should.
That was what had troubled him and caused him to doubt ever since.
She would have known by then that he had been trying to get her on
the telephone and would have had any answer ready for him. And
that may have been exactly what happened, assuming that she had
been in the car and gotten home ahead of him, and presuming her
mother had lied for her, which she would not do—not Mrs. Dana. For
when he had walked in, a little flushed and excited, Beryl had
exclaimed: “Whatever is the matter, Gil?” And then: “What a crazy
thing, to come hurrying home just to ask me about this! Of course I
haven’t been in any car. How ridiculous! Ask Mother. You wouldn’t
expect her to fib for me, would you?” And then to clinch the matter
she had added: “Alice and I left Tickles with her and went to the
concert after going into the park for a while. When we returned, Alice
stopped home so Mother could walk over here with me. What are
you so excited about.” And for the life of him, he had not been able
to say anything except that he had seen a woman going into Briscoe
Park in a tan-and-chocolate car, seated beside a big man who
looked like—well, he couldn’t say exactly whom he did look like. But
the woman beside him certainly looked like Beryl. And she had had
on a hat with green grapes on one side and a white-and-green
striped sports coat, just like the one she had. Taking all that into
consideration, what would any one think? But she had laughed it off,
and what was he to say? He certainly couldn’t accuse Mrs. Dana of
not knowing what she was talking about, or Beryl of lying, unless he
was sure of what he was saying. She was too strong-minded and too
strong-willed for that. She had only married him after a long period of
begging on his part; and she wasn’t any too anxious to live with him
now unless they could get along comfortably together.
Yet taken along with that Raskoffsky business of only a few
months before, and the incident of the Hotel Deming of only the day
before (but of which he had thought nothing until he had seen her in
the car), and the incident of the letters in the ashes, which followed
on the morning after he had dashed home that day, and then that
business of the closed car in Bergley Place, just three nights
afterwards—well, by George! when one put such things together—
It was very hard to put these things in the order of their effect on
him, though it was easy to put them in their actual order as to time.
The Hotel Deming incident had occurred only the day before the
automobile affair and taken alone, meant nothing, just a chance
encounter with her on the part of Naigly, who had chosen to speak of
it. But joined afterwards with the business of the partly burned letters
and after seeing her in that car or thinking he had—Well—After that,
naturally his mind had gone back to that Hotel Deming business, and
to the car, too. Naigly, who had been interested in Beryl before her
marriage (she had been Baggott’s stenographer), came into the
office about four—the day before he had seen Beryl, or thought he
had, in the car, and had said to him casually: “I saw your wife just
now, Stoddard.” “That so? Where?” “She was coming out of the
Deming ladies’ entrance as I passed just now.” Well, taken by itself,
there was nothing much in that, was there? There was an arcade of
shops which made the main entrance to the Deming, and it was easy
to go through that and come out of one of the other entrances. He
knew Beryl had done it before, so why should he have worried about
it then? Only, for some reason, when he came home that evening
Beryl didn’t mention that she had been downtown that day until he
asked her. “What were you doing about four to-day?” “Downtown,
shopping. Why? Did you see me? I went for Mother.” “Me? No. Who
do you know in the Deming?” “No one”—this without a trace of self-
consciousness, which was one of the things that made him doubt
whether there had been anything wrong. “Oh, yes; I remember now. I
walked through to look at the hats in Anna McCarty’s window, and
came out the ladies’ entrance. Why?” “Oh, nothing. Naigly said he
saw you, that’s all. You’re getting to be a regular gadabout these
days.” “Oh, what nonsense! Why shouldn’t I go through the Deming
Arcade? I would have stopped in to see you, only I know you don’t
like me to come bothering around there.”
And so he had dismissed it from his mind—until the incident of the
car.
And then the matter of the letters ... and Raskoffsky ...
Beryl was crazy about music, although she couldn’t play except a
little by ear. Her mother had been too poor to give her anything more
than a common school education, which was about all that he had
had. But she was crazy about the violin and anybody who could play
it, and when any of the great violinists came to town she always
managed to afford to go. Raskoffsky was a big blond Russian who
played wonderfully, so she said. She and Alice had gone to hear
him, and for weeks afterward they had raved about him. They had
even talked of writing to him, just to see if he would answer, but he
had frowned on such a proceeding because he didn’t want Beryl
writing to any man. What good would it do her? A man like that
wouldn’t bother about answering her letter, especially if all the
women were as crazy about him as the papers said. Yet later he had
found Raskoffsky’s picture in Beryl’s room, only it was inscribed to
Alice.... Still, Beryl might have put Alice up to it, might even have
sent her own picture under Alice’s name, just to see if he would
answer. They had talked of sending a picture. Besides, if Alice had
written and secured this picture, why wasn’t it in her rather than
Beryl’s possession. He had asked about that. Yet the one flaw in that
was that Alice wasn’t really good-looking enough to send her picture
and she knew it. Yet Beryl had sworn that she hadn’t written. And
Alice had insisted that it was she and not Beryl who had written. But
there was no way of proving that she hadn’t or that Beryl had.
Yet why all the secrecy? Neither of them had said anything more
about writing Raskoffsky after that first time. And it was only because
he had come across Raskoffsky’s picture in one of Beryl’s books that
he had come to know anything about it at all. “To my fair little
western admirer who likes my ‘Dance Macabre’ so much. The next
time I play in your city you must come and see me.” But Alice wasn’t
fair or good-looking. Beryl was. And it was Beryl and not Alice, who
had first raved over that dance; Alice didn’t care so much for music.
And wasn’t it Beryl, and not Alice, who had proposed writing him. Yet
it was Alice who had received the answer. How was that? Very likely
it was Beryl who had persuaded Alice to write for her, sending her
own instead of Alice’s picture, and getting Alice to receive
Raskoffsky’s picture for her when it came. Something in their manner
the day he had found the picture indicated as much. Alice had been
so quick to say: “Oh yes. I wrote him.” But Beryl had looked a little
queer when she caught him looking at her, had even flushed slightly,
although she had kept her indifferent manner. At that time the
incident of the car hadn’t occurred. But afterwards,—after he had
imagined he had seen Beryl in the car—it had occurred to him that
maybe it was Raskoffsky with whom she was with that day. He was
playing in Columbus, so the papers said, and he might have been
passing through the city. He was a large man too, as he now
recalled, by George! If only he could find a way to prove that!