140 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



ed with aromatics, as in the Electuarium Thebaicum ; or they 

 may be usefully joined with volatile alkali and camphire. Musk 

 has likewise proved useful in this disease. 



When the affection of the stomach is accompanied with vo- 

 miting, this may be encouraged by taking draughts of warm 

 wine, at first with water, and afterwards without it ; having at 

 length recourse, if necessary, to some of the remedies above 

 mentioned, and particularly the opiates. 



In like manner, if the intestines be affected with diarrhoea, 

 this is to be at first encouraged, by taking plentifully of weak 

 broth ; and when this shall have been done sufficiently, the tu- 

 mult is to be quieted by opiates. 



" I have said that there is another case of irregular gout, call- 

 ed the retrocedent, and it is this, that the inflammatory state 

 has taken place to a certain degree and for a certain time, but 

 suddenly ceasing in the joints, it is immediately followed by 

 various atonic or spasmodic affections of the internal parts. So 

 far as I can perceive from observation or reading, the symp- 

 toms here are much the same as in other cases, and it is uncer- 

 tain when it will attack the head, thorax, or abdominal viscera, 

 but it is with the same symptoms that I mentioned before : 

 only what I think deserves our farther observation is, that 

 the symptoms then appearing are commonly more violent ; but 

 this is to be expected from hence, that the atony taking place 

 is more considerable, as the tone of the whole of the part 

 had been more excited before, and though, in point of theory, 

 I cannot undertake to explain it clearly, yet it appears to me, 

 that there is certainly an atony propagated from the extremi- 

 ties to the origin of the nerves, and thereby inducing apoplexy, 

 syncope, cramp, palsy, and death. 



" When the case of retrocedent gout occurs, and the symptoms 

 are of a threatening kind, and extremely violent, we trust to 

 the application of stimuli, joined however to antispasmodics : 

 the chief are volatile alkalies, as a stimulus, and perhaps as an 

 antispasmodic, and opium as operating in both ways, camphire 

 and musk. A still more common remedy, is the use of ardent 

 spirits applied to the stomach ; it is remarkable that its dose 

 must be very large : I have known an instance of a person tak- 

 ing two pounds of brandy, or strong rum, to produce a cure in 



