Gouty complications-Obstinacy of local injuries in persons of a gouty tendency-Undeveloped gout very common in females- The organic changes which occasion angina pectoris caused by the long-continued circulation of gouty blood-Comparison of the most remarkable symptoms in gout and rheumatism, showing in what respects they most resemble and differ from each other, Treatment of gout—General observations-Bleeding-Purgatives— Colchicum; its modus operandi—Ill effects of colchicum; how induced; the best mode of administering it-Vegetable salts of potass-Vapour baths and hot-air bath-Pure air promotes recovery-Inhalation of an atmosphere largely surcharged with pulmonary affections) scarcely any malady that so frequently demands the aid of the physician as that of rheumatism; there is scarcely any that is attended with so much suffering to the patient, that so obstinately baffles, at all events for a time, the best directed efforts of medicine to relieve it, and which, when relieved and even apparently cured, so constantly leaves behind it B Gouty complications-Obstinacy of local injuries in persons of a gouty tendency-Undeveloped gout very common in females- The organic changes which occasion angina pectoris caused by the long-continued circulation of gouty blood-Comparison of the most remarkable symptoms in gout and rheumatism, showing in what respects they most resemble and differ from each other, RHEUMATISM. CHAPTER I. Introduction-Frequency and obscurity of the disease-Opinions of Dr. Watson, Dr. Fuller, and the author-Urate of soda, probable materies morbi-Physiology of urea and uric acid—Liebig's theory in the main correct, but sufficient latitude not allowed for disturbing causes in both health and disease-Becquerel's tables of the comparative quantities of uric acid and urea, as quoted by the late Dr. Golding Bird, reconsidered-Practical conclusions to be drawn therefrom. that In the temperate but ever-changing climate in which we live, there is (with the exception of pulmonary affections) scarcely any malady that so frequently demands the aid of the physician as that of rheumatism; there is scarcely any is attended with so much suffering to the patient, that so obstinately baffles, at all events for a time, the best directed efforts of medicine to relieve it, and which, when relieved and even apparently cured, so constantly leaves behind it the germs of future, and only too often of fatal organic disease. It is, therefore, for each and B all of these reasons a subject of the utmost practical importance; and, as such, has doubtless on many past, and will again on many future occasions, occupy the serious attention of every practitioner of medicine, from the patres conscripti of the profession down to its youngest members. Our anxiety, however, when first called in to a case of acute rheumatism, is not alone dependent on the feeling that we have an obstinate, vigorous, and subtle foe to contend with-which may at any time leave the outworks in which it is temporarily located and entrench itself in the heart, the very citadel of life-but it is very materially enhanced by the conviction that our treatment of this disease has not hitherto been based on that sound and accurate knowledge of its true and precise nature which is essential in order to enable us to prescribe with confidence and success, and we cannot help admitting to ourselves, with a feeling very much akin to humiliation, that although we have no difficulty in diagnosing the disease -that although we are acquainted with its immediate exciting cause, and recognise it in the aggregation of symptoms then before us as rheumatism, we are still unacquainted with those changes which supervene on the application of the exciting cause, whether in the blood |