TraBatus de Podagra ^ Hydrope per Tho Sydenham 
M,D. Londini i^Sj. 
THe account this TrcatiC^ glv^s us of the ^oat is grounded upon 
the Author's many Years experience^both of thedifeafc icfelf, 
and of the method of cure. He is very exa^ in his dekription of the 
dfe, progref?,caufes and Symptoms of it, and tells us thofc men are 
moli commonly attacqucd by it in their age, whofe Youth was 
pampered with fpirituous Wines, and high Diet, whom though 
they perceived no inconveniences but what their exercifes then car« 
lied off, yet the neceilary una(Sllvenefs of old age made them fuffer 
what an a^iveand vigorous Youth permitted them not to feel. Not 
that the young or the lean are totally exempt from it, inheritance 
4ind excefs of Vetjery often bringing it upon thofe whofe years and 
confiituiion might elfc have been priviledged, and among all man- 
kind he obferves thofe moft liable and made for it, whofe large 
heads, and rnoi(}, lax, and fall habit of body marks them out,and 
difpofes for its reception. But if any man is fo happy as toefcapc 
it till he is old, he is never fo often or fo much affli^^ed, as he who 
isfeized in his youth, cither death preventing the full growth p£ 
the difeafe, or the native heat being not ftrong enough to through 
oSi\iz mauria morblfica upon the Joints. The regular time of its 
invafion he affigns the latter end of January >^ or the beginning of ^*^- 
brmry^ the chief timeoi its fury is at night, with which the pain 
proportionably declines, a fcriesof which fliort Fi^s confiture the 
general one, which fometimes kftstwo or three M6nths, and thofe 
who are in years, or weakened by other Diftempers it feldom leaves 
till the full Summer drives it away. 
Among the other fad attendants of this diftempcr he brings in the 
Stone ^ which happens to mofi either from their long lyiog on their 
backs,or from the intermiffion of the ufual/(p<rr^//W, or elfe becaufe 
both diftempers may probably fpring from one and the fame matter. 
Neither is the body alone thus affliftedjbut the torments reach 
the mind, fo that every Paroxjfm is as much a fit of Angerj as of the 
Gout.upon contemplation of allthe Symftomes he imputes the whole 
diftemper io the defeU of c&ncoUion^m the parts and humours of the 
body, which the want of animal fpiritsmany other ways formerly 
wafted, neceffayily infers, by the great decay the ferments^ whofe 
force depends chiefly upon them. 
As for the cure he deiigns ancscedendy the digcftion of the hu- 
mours, and in the Pit the allayiTig of the heat,and EMltiofi of them 
ariCing 
