: 114 3 



XVI. On the Cure of the Gout. Bi/ A. StEnhouse^ M.D~ 

 EdmL'urgh *. 



X HAVE heretofore given some couiinunications on the 

 effects of gmger in the gout; and, although I have received 

 much rehef in the painful stage of that disorder, by the 

 daily use of it for these three years past, yet the debility 

 that followed was not IcsS tedious : so that I continued my 

 pursuit of something more efficacious, which I am hopeful 

 i have at. last found, and v.hich I consider it to be a duty to 

 promulgate. Much have I thought for these eighteen years, 

 and many an unintelligible page have T read upon this sub- 

 ject : but to come to the present (]ucstion, since I am not 

 writing a book : — In the month of April last, a publication 

 was put into mv hand, which had escaped mv notice, by a 

 judicious acquaintance, to whom I am much obliged, enti- 

 tled ' Facts and Observations respecting the Air-pump 

 Vapour-bath f in Gout, Rheumatism, Palsv, and other 

 Disorders; by Ralph Blcgborotigh, M.D-, Member of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, London ;' which apparatus, if 

 it has all the effects ascribed to it, should be in every hos- 

 pital and neighbourhood. I was S'O much pleased with the 

 successful op'rration of this apparatus, because it confirmed 

 an opinion I have long entertained of the inunediate cause 

 of a paroxysm of the gout (for of the gout I am only speak- 

 ing) that I was determined to try the experiment on myself 

 the first opportunity, though on a niore simple scale : my 

 opinion will be elucidated by the follov/ing remarks and 

 experiments : 



The immediate cause of all acute pain I take to be 

 either irritation or obstruction: the laltt'r is surely the im- 

 mediate cause of a gouty paroxysm. To trace causes to 

 iheir elements is but an uncertain pursuit, and cannot be 

 attempted here. That this obstruction takes place in the 

 minute branches uf the arteries, I hold to be true; nor do 



■'■'■■ From the 'Euinht'.rpb Courant of January 9, 1504. 



f For a description of this apparatus see a printed letter of Dr. Bleg- 

 borough, dated February 10, iSoa; also the Philosophical Magnzine, 

 vol. XIV. p. 2S9. We cannot here avoid noticing a laie plagiarism of 

 this invLntioi). A Frunch pripcr, Lc Clrf du Cabinet, of June 5, 1803, 

 informs the Parisians, that a M. Jaques Boyol, a physician at Nice, among 

 ether useful medical machines, has invenfed different pumps for curing 

 gout, rlteum;lti^;m, pa'sy, &:c. by administering baths of air and vapour. 

 The article coicludts with stating, that Mr. Nath. Green, the English 

 consul at Mice, had otlered the mudisl invtutor 30,000 guineas to carry 

 liis discovery to London ! I ! 



I see 



