“…Some clinical studies-for example, those of Baker and Musgrave (1947), Cookson (1949), Kaufman and Poliakoff (1950), Appel and Kossmann (1951), and Hebbert and Rankin (1954)-have emphasized the relatively large number of cases of mitral valve disease in elderly patients. Hammond and Platts (1960) have drawn attention to the numbers of patients over the age of 60 who were found at necropsy to have mitral valve disease. Varying figures have been recorded concerning the incidence of rheumatic mitral valve disease found in patients over the age of 50, based on post-mortem studies: Cabot (1926) gives a figure of 33%, Boas andFineberg (1926) 34%, andCoombs (1924) only 9%.…”