Gout and goutiness : and their treatment / by William Ewart.

  • William Ewart
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gout and goutiness : and their treatment / by William Ewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    589/612 (page 573)
    keenly felt by them. After the age of thirty some form of daily exercise should be selected and adhered to ; and the choice is now varied. Horse exercise, of which Sydenham held that it was of so much value in gout that, had it not been long invented, its inventor might have realized a fortune, is still unsur- passed ; but the bicycle now throws analogous, and some- times superior, advantages within the reach of the larger number. The more sedate, if heavier, tricycle has long been the secret of health for many a gouty subject physi- cally unfit for equitation. A sharp walk up-hill may suffice to cause the skin to act, but mere walking, especially on level ground, fails to ' shake the liver.' This is one of the boons of riding a horse or a tricycle. The mechanical jolting of the viscera is brought about passively and without additional effort; whilst the active methods of securing this result, even the use of the skipping-rope, entail more exertion than many could attempt. All open-air exercises are much to be preferred to the various forms of gymnastics devised for home use ; in addition to their exhilarating effect upon the nervous system, they possess the higher oxygenating value attach- ing to rapid movement through space. Chamber gymnastics offer, however, many advantages; they can be varied so as to suit almost every degree of debility or of articular affection ; they save time ; they are independent of the weather ; and they may be religiously performed as part of the toilet, with every facility at hand for the warm sponging and cold affusion which are the proper com- plement of all forms of exercise accompanied with sweat- ing. At any rate, any advantage gained may be kept up in this way, so as to minimize the risk of a gouty attack being set up by some unusual physical exertion. Fortified by this daily allowance of work, gouty subjects will derive