A letter to Dr. Chambers ... on several important points relating to the nature and proper treatment of gout / by Sir Charles Scudamore.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Dr. Chambers ... on several important points relating to the nature and proper treatment of gout / by Sir Charles Scudamore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    that they shall one day have the gout, and use a variety of means for this purpose, which, happily for them, are generally ineffectual.” Again—“ For this (the gout) seems to be the favorite disease of the present age in England ; wished for by those who have it not, and boasted of by those who fancy they have it; though very sincerely lamented by most who in reality suffer its tyranny. Hence, by a peculiar fate, more pains seem to be taken, at present, to breed or produce the gout, than to find out its remedy. For so much respect hath been shown to this distemper, that all the other ails, except pain, which the supposed gouty patient ever feels, are imputed most commonly, not to his having had too much of this disease, but to his wanting more; and the gout, far from being blamed as the cause, is looked up to as the expected deliverer from these evils.” The dread of being cured of the gout is not now greater than the dread of having it. It is not held as “ a sacred disease,” nor is it con- sidered profane to handle it freely; but as mankind are always apt to run into extremes, so did it happen that the indifference to treat- b 2