On gout : its history, its causes, and its cure / by William Gairdner.

  • William Gairdner
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On gout : its history, its causes, and its cure / by William Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the choice of remedies, and the general direction of the cure.1 In recent cases, the paroxysm of gout very fre- quently supervenes, without any kind of warning; but when the gouty diathesis is well formed, and the patient has already undergone repeated attacks, it is nearly always preceded by dyspepsia. The food readily becomes acescent. The patient is af- flicted with heartburn, flatulency, and anorexia; the bowels are confined. The urine is much dimi- nished in quantity, and readily deposits a crust of urates on the vessel which receives it. He has tenderness in the feet in walking, complains of a tight boot, or shoe, or of being crippled in his fingers, or wrists. At the same time that these pains appear, he is usually relieved from the dis- tressing feeling of indigestion. Should the local symptoms suddenly vanish, without the recurrence of dyspepsia, the fit is at hand.2 It generally comes 1 This classification, I consider, as a great merit of the author, since it explains in a manner very easy to comprehend the otherwise obscure and confused history of gout, makes apparent its destructive influence upon the organism, and especially on the nervous system, and at the same time is of the greatest value for treatment. It is also adopted by Julius Vogel in his excellent treatise on the special pathology and therapeutics of Virchow. (Braun's Translation.) 2 The nervous system is shortly before the attack, either in a state of depression or irritation. In the former case, the patient is rendered hypochondriacal, stupid, drowsy, and there is torpor of all
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