Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) as a health resort / by Alexander [and others].

  • Alexander, Louis.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) as a health resort / by Alexander [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    formerly weighing 190 pounds had suffered from diabetes for several years and who had already been four times to Karlsbad. She had the first attack of gout in both feet in June 1883 and very soon afterwards a second attack took place. When she came here on July 19 1883 the metatarsal joint of the great toe and the ankle joint were still swollen. In the following years she tried both Karlsbad and Aachen, the attack of gout was not repeated and the swellings had disappeared. The second case was that of a gentleman now 66 years old who had never lived very luxuriously and who moreover was not very fat. His weight seldom exceeded 150 pounds; he contracted syphilis 25 years ago and slight erosions still show themselves from time to time on the tongue but disappear on painting them with corrosive sublimate; 12 or 15 years ago he had] slight attacks of podagra and painful nodules formed on the last joint of the finger. There were no acute attacks of gout in the last ten years but diabetes set in about four years ago, with suitable diet the urine remains free of sugar but has contained a small quantity of albumen for the last two years. Supported by my experience of more than 350 cases I can assert that the simultaneous occurence of gout and diabetes is not frequent, at least with us; I believe, however, that stout women are more liable to diabetes and stout men to gout although obesity is not a necessary factor in either of these diseases even though it is a frequent preliminary condition. These anomalies of metabolism are apparently of very! different nature. Ebstein it is well known has recently taught that the diabetic from a defective constitution of his tissue protoplasm may produce less carbonic acid from an equal quantity of combustion materials than a healthy man.1 tHe further asserts that the uric acid diathesis and a disposition to diabetes often occur together or alternately and that both arise during intra-uterine life. If Ebstein had always seen gout precede diabetes in these cases in which 1 Die Zuckerharnruhr, Wiesbaden 1887.
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