LAND AND WATER 
April 24, 1915 
THE 
ORIGIN OF GOUT 
HOW TO DETECT URIC ACID SYMPTOMS. 
URIC ACID, the fundamental cause of all gouty 
suffering, is in reality a normal product of the 
human system, owing its existence partly to its 
introduction into the body as a constituent of 
certain classes of food, and partly as a result of the 
natural tissue changes— the wearing out and repairing processes 
constantly going on. 
As soon almost as uric acid gets into your circulation from 
either of these sources it gives you evidence of its disturbing 
presence by certain well-detincd symptoms, which are nature's 
signals of impending gouty outbreaks. You feel out of sorts, 
heavy, and dull, especially in the mornings ; your liver is out of 
order ; you are -restless, easily irritated, and s" ep badly. You 
suffer from dyspepsia, flatulence, and heartburn. You are 
depressed, and trifling little affairs worry you. You have per- 
sistent and severe headaches. You frequently e.xperience 
sensations of burning and irritation in the skin, or occasional 
twinges of pain in your joints, or there may be stiffness in both 
joints and muscles, and dull aches in various parts of your body. 
GOUTY PROGRESS. 
When the uric acid becomes embedded in the muscles, gouty 
rheumatism or lumbago results. At first there is only a slight 
sensation of stiffness, and an occasional catch of pain. Gradually, 
as the atoms congregate, and the sharp crystals bore their resist- 
less way into the substance of the muscle, they increase the 
stiffness, and the piercing of tiie penetrating acicular crystals 
causes the sharp, cutting pain that tortures sufferers from gouty 
rheumatism. This is the term employed when the muscles of the 
limbs and shoulders are affected, whilst lumbago is the name 
applied when the loin muscles particularly are involved. 
Other varieties of gouty sufferers are chronic, or rheumatic, 
gout arising from the clogging uratic deposits in the joints, and 
attended by swelling, inflammation, pain, and stiffness ; sciatica 
and neuritis when the nerve sheaths arc penetrated by the sharp 
crystals, which cause the hot, stabbing pain in thighs or arms ; 
kidney stone and gravel, which are simply deposits of urates in 
the organs ; and gouty eczema, the inevitable result of uric acid 
forcing its way into the skin. 
HOW TO ESCAPE GOUT. 
As long as4uric acid remains in the system, so long will the 
pain and agony caused by its presence continue. The uratic 
masses must be converted into soluble substances, and swept out 
of the body before relief can be obtained. It has been con- 
clusively demonstrated that Bishop's Varalettes are the most 
generally effective uric acid solvents and ehminants. They go 
directly to the root of the matter, and expel uric acid from the 
system. The rational and scientific mode of action of Bishop's 
Varalettes is bound to result in successful alleviation of gouty 
suffering. 
Bishop's Varalettes are made by an old-established firm of 
manufacturing chemists of the highest standing, who have for 
very many years made uric acid solvents a subject of special 
study. Their investigations into this branch of therapy have 
enabled them to place in the hands of the medical profession and 
gouty subjects a remedy that is at once rehable, safe, and sure. 
Physicians recognise and acknowledge this by prescribing Bishop's 
Varalettes daily. Bishop's Varalettes are free from any harmful 
ingredients, such as colchicum, iodides, mercury, potash, 
salicylates, and do not contain any purgative, narcotic, or anodyne 
drugs, so that even delicate subjects can take them with absolute 
confidence. They do not depress or lower the system in any 
way. 
DIET AND GOUT. 
There is scarcely any subject that gives rise to more dis- 
cussion, or, at times, proves more perplexing, than the all 
engrossing one of foods and drinks suitable for the goutily 
inclined. Popular opinions on this subject are so often quite 
erroneous that it will be welcome news to you that a booklet has 
been recently published dealing with the whole question of diet 
in a clear, authoritative, and comprehensive manner. 
No difficulty in future need arise in arranging pleasant, 
varied, and satisfying menus, made up wholly of uric-acid-free 
dishes. Classified lists are published of allowable and non- 
allowable foods, and the booklet forms a perfect guide for the 
gouty. It contains, in addition, a mass of useful information on 
the whole subject of uric acid disorders. 
A copy will be sent, post free, on application, to the sole 
makers of Bishop's Varalettes, Alfred Bishop, Ltd., Manufacturing 
Chemists (Est. 1857), 48 Spelman Street. London, N.E. Please 
write for booklet N. 
Bishop's Varalettes are sold by all chemists in vials, at is., 
2s., and 5s. (25 days' treatment), or direct from ths sole makers. 
LITERARY REVIEW 
By R. A. SCOTT-JAMES 
" The Place-Names of England and Wales." By 
Rev. Jame.s B. Johnston, !\\.A., B.D. Murray.) 
15s. net. 
Any man who loves walking tours, anyone, in fact, 
who takes an intelligent interest in his own locality 
will find untold wealth of information in Mr. Johnston's 
volume. Most of the place-names of England, whether 
they be the names of town, village, river, hill, or bog, 
have their long historical association and their origin- 
— their interesting and baffling origin. Mr. Johnston 
dispels many long-treasured illusions. The termination 
" Caster " or " Chester," for instance, is no proof of 
the former existence of a Roman camp. " Oxford " has 
probably nothing to do with " Oxen," the first part of the 
word being the old Celtic nisc (meaning water), and is thus 
not only the same word as Oiise, but also Isis. The arrange- 
ment of names is alphabetical. If wc refer to this work 
carefully we may follow the place-names of England to their 
jnobable Celtic, Saxon, or Scandinavian origins, and learn 
at the same time much about language, history, and 
geography. 
"A Life of Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salis- 
bury." By Algernon Cecil. (Murray.) 12s. net. 
It would be hard for us to conceive modern England 
without the family of the Cecils. It has handed on an intact 
tradition from the time of Lord Burghley, and his son, Robert 
Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury, down to the late Lord 
Salisbury and the Cecils of to-day. Mr. Algernon Cecil 
himself is essentially one of them. He has the characteristic 
breadth of mind and grasp of affairs, the sense of the 
constitutional order of things, and its importance, the 
shrewdness, the subtle feeling of what is fitting and not fitting, 
along with the humane traits which have been developed in 
some members of his family — an 'interest in religion, in 
literature and the subtleties of psychology. 
He has been able to understand Robert Cecil, the first 
earl, and show him from within and without. 1 doubt if 
anyone else would have made so interesting a book out of so 
uninspiring a subject — so uninspiring, indeed, that no 
biographer has hitherto attempted the task, though for 
fourteen critical years he was practically Prime Minister of 
England. Queen Elizabeth, Essex, Raleigh, Bacon — 
these 'are the alluring figures whom the biographer loves. 
But Lord Burghley and Lord Salisbury — what were tliey ? 
Bureaucrats, employers of spies, wielders of patronage — the 
indispensable but uninteresting props of Crown and State. 
But not uninteresting in Mr. Cecil's hands. He has not 
been content merely to ransack the Record Office and the 
archives of Hatfield House. He has studied this industrious 
administrator with the coolness of a Machiavelli examining 
the methods of maintaining a principality. 
"The Qreat Age." 
son.) 6s. 
By J. C. Snaith. (Hutchin- 
Mr. Snaith has been as bold as the most romantic of 
novelists may be. He has not merely introduced Queen 
Elizabeth, Francis Bacon, Cecil, Raleigh, etc., but the far more 
remote and diflicult character of William Shakespeare. The 
fantasy is ingenious and neat. A young heiress of incomparable 
beauty and courage rescues from a dungeon a youth wrong- 
fully condemned to death. She wanders with her Orlando 
over the fields and woods of England till, in the city of Oxford, 
she meets for a second time one William Shakespeare. How 
she comes to act the part of " Rosalind " in " As \'ou Like 
It," and how Shakespeare constructs a play setting forth the 
fortunes of his proteges, and recites the story to the Queen — 
all this must be left to the reader to discover. Improbable, 
fantastic, as it all is — as it is meant to be — it is saying much 
for Mr. Snaith that if he has not created a character for the 
gentle dramatist he has not made him stiff, or undignified, or 
bookish, or ridiculous ; in fact, he has outlined something 
into which the part of Shakespeare might be fitted. 
The following are novels or books of stories to which 
I should like to call the reader's attention. 
The Empty House." (Short Stories). By Algernon Blackwood. 
(Nash). 
' The Good Soldier." By Ford Madox Hueffcr. (Lane.) 
' Brunei's Tower." By Eden Phillpotts. (Heinemann). 
The Voice of the Turtle." By Frederick Watson. (Methuen). 
'The Family." By F:ieanor Mordaunt. (Methuen). 
' The Tilan." By Theodore Dreiser. (Lane). 
'A Lover's Tale." By Maurice Hewlett. (Ward. Lock^. 
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