Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A text-book of medicine : for students and practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.
1020/1108 page 992
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A text-book of medicine : for students and practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![codes locally applied, and warm compresses. Wliether any internal remedies are calculated to abbreviate the attack is doubtful. Formerly colchicum (twenty or thirty drops of vinum colchici seminis three or four times a day) was the favorite medicine, but it seems to he going out of use. Salicylic acid and salicylate of sodium may be administered in the same way as in acute articular I’heumatism, and sometimes, although not always, they are followed hy improvement. Anti- Ijyrine, and perhaps antifebriue, sometimes succeed in allaying the pain in the affection of the joints. Some physicians recommend subcutaneous injections of antipyrine in the neighborhood of the joint, hut we have no i>ersonal experience on this point. [One reason why colchicum has fallen into relative disuse is that the relief obtained from it is often so prompt and complete that patients are tempted into continued indulgence in a faulty manner of life. It is also supposed by some that the drug interferes with the effort of nature to elimhiate the poison, which becomes generally diffused, and sets up changes in the vessels and internal organs. Precisely how colchicum acts we do not Icnow, but that it does act, and some- times with marvelous success, there can be no question.] The chronic affections of the joints in gout are treated as are other varieties of chronic arthritis {vide page 915). The most efficient remedies are cautious mas- sage and baths, including hot sulphur baths and mud-and-sulphur baths. The internal administration of the alkalies, lithium, and similar di’ugs, to combat the general gouty diathesis, should be associated with these external remedies. Some physicians report that iodide of potassium favors the absorption of the gouty deposits. The treatment of the nephritis and other complications need not be discussed at length. The gout itself should always be the main object of our therapeutic efforts, and beyond this we may be guided by general principles. CHAPTER XII. OBESITY. {Corpulence. Pohjsarcia adiposa.) Definition and ^Etiology.—The amount of adipose tissue in the body is subject to considerable variation, and it is not possible to state absolutely what should be considered as noi’mal and what as abnormal. For practical purposes we may draw the line where the increased size gi’ows burdensome to the individual. After a certain point, any further addition to the amount of fatty tissue is almost sure to work serious injury, and is therefore to be regai’ded as an actual disease, and not merely an inconvenience. It should be said, however, that in such cases the symptoms of obesity are very frequently confounded with those springing from other disorders—these latter possessing, indeed, the same aetiology as obesity, but distinct from it. The most frequent and important cause of obesity is the habitual ingestion of too lai’ge an amount of food. By “ too large ” is meant an amount sufficient to occasion a continual increase of the adipose tissue of the body, when this is already fairly well developed. It is a matter of indifference whether the excess is com- posed mainly of albuminoids, or carbohydrates, or fats; for in either case, if the quantity be sufficient, an increase of adipose tissue may take place. We shall -soon see, however, that the excess is usually iu fat and carbohydrates. Inasmuch](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28135970_1020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
