GOUT. 223 



well as his best habits and customs, so is she acquiring 

 the diseases which were once peculiar to him because 

 of those habits. Now-a-days it is nothing strange to 

 find a woman suffering from gout in its most virulent 

 form, though happily sufficient of the old feminine 

 spirit survives to make such a thing not an every- 

 day occurrence. Sir A. Garrod says, " In the de- 

 generate times of the Koman Empire, when women 

 gave themselves up to every kind of licentiousness, 

 they appear from Seneca's account to have become the 

 subjects of gout equally with men." * What we shall 

 ultimately arrive at can only be surmised, but it is 

 perfectly certain that as woman approaches man in 

 education, occupation, and mode of life, she is at the 

 same time acquiring those diseases and defects which 

 were once peculiar to man. Such diseases as gout 

 and general paralysis of the insane, once peculiar to 

 the male, are becoming more common among women 

 every day. Criminality, too, has been increasing 

 steadily among women in England during the past 

 quarter of a century or more. Can any one for an 

 instant doubt the cause ? 



Gout, as we have seen, commonly makes its appear- 

 ance between the ages of thirty and fifty years. At 

 times it appears so early as ten, twelve, or sixteen 

 years, but such cases are rare, and in nearly every 

 instance depend upon strong hereditary taint, occurring 

 most frequently in the children of elderly fathers who 

 have suffered repeated attacks of the disease. When 

 * Op. cit. 



