INFLAMMATIONS. 129 



so far as custom and the declining state of the system may have 

 rendered them necessary. For preventing or moderating the 

 regular gout, water is the only proper drink. 



" I will only say, that I imagine it is the quantity of wine 

 chiefly which has this effect, and if taken moderately, it will 

 scarcely be hurtful by its stimulus, and a total abstinence is neces- 

 sary only in a few cases. But no doubt, something arises from the 

 quality of wines also : wines are acescent, and may afford a 

 preternatural quantity of acid in our stomachs : therefore, such 

 wines are certainly to be avoided. To the moderate stimulus 

 of a small quantity of wine, not thus acescent, there can be no 

 objection. There are certain stomachs, however, (of which I 

 have seen several instances,) that cannot bear any wine, and in 

 which Madeira will become as acescent as Cyder: in such 

 cases, it is obvious that wine must, on account of the stomach, 

 be strictly avoided, and if some stimulus is necessary, it is safer 

 to employ spirits not capable of further fermentation. These 

 have been too much used by gouty persons, and brandy and 

 water has become a frequent drink among persons whose 

 stomachs are impaired : but it is an extremely dangerous prac- 

 tice, and on many occasions becomes a habit. People may 

 begin and find a sufficient stimulus in a very small quantity of 

 spirits ; but the quantity must be increased, and we have many 

 instances where people have come to take the plain spirits in 

 considerable quantity. This habit therefore, should not be 

 introduced without great necessity : whenever it comes to be 

 the case, it certainly impairs, like any other stimulus, the tone 

 of the stomach, and brings on the very state which we wish to 

 obviate. 



" With regard to the management of sleep and waking, as 

 belonging to the same head, it has been long a rule of experi- 

 ence, that the sleep of gouty persons should be early and never 

 protracted long. Going to bed early proceeds on the same 

 principle as avoiding meat suppers, viz. that the evening fever 

 which attacks the constitution be not irritated by watching, or 

 the exercise of it, and that therefore this is the time, which na- 

 ture has devoted to sleep. With regard to the other point, 

 that it should never be protracted long, it turns upon the view 



VOL. II. I 



