ABSTRACT
Ankylosing spondylitis has been recognized in skeletons found throughout the centuries. Bernard Connor (1666–1698), an Irishman, ‘while demonstrating anatomy in France … came across a most unusual skeleton found in a graveyard in which the ilium and sacrum and the 15 lowest vertebrae and adjoining ribs formed one continuous bone … Connor fully realised the importance of his discovery and reported it in three languages, in French … in Latin … and in English … By the late 1800s sufficient interest [allowed] Strumpell in 1884 to venture a tentative textbook mention, citing two patients with complete ankylosis of the spine and hip joints … this was followed by … papers by Strumpell (1897), von Bechterew (1893 and 1899) and Pierre Marie (1898).’ 1
