General observations on the elimination, catalysis and counter-action of poisons : with especial reference to oxaluria and ague / by J.A. Easton.

  • Easton, J. A. (John Alexander), 1807-1865.
Date:
[1858?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General observations on the elimination, catalysis and counter-action of poisons : with especial reference to oxaluria and ague / by J.A. Easton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    witli the views wliicli 1 have aheady offered—may be eUmiiiated and deposited from the blood in any organ or tissue of the body—in the eye, in the ear, the stomach, and even in car- tilages and bursse*—while all this is conceded, I am of opinion, in opposition, I admit, to high authority, that the attacks of gout are more frequently concentrated on the fibrous than on any other tissue of the body, and that, in that particular structure, the poison more especially produces those objective appearances with which every one is familiar. Hence, among the victims of gout, the diffused redness which is so often seen, and the severe pain which is so often felt, in those parts of the body where fibrous tissue prevails, over the dorsum of the foot for example, and in the situation of aponeurotic expansions generally. In making this statement, 1 by no means wish to homologate the opinion entertained by many, that these particular appearances and sensations, in such localities, are no signs of gout proper, but are the characteristic phenomena of the so-called rheumatic gout, a sort of pathological cross between gout and rheumatism, the deformity of which has been ably exposed by Dr. Garrod.f No one, I apprehend, can read the valuable paper of this accomplished physician on the differential diagnosis between gout and rheuma- tism, without being convinced tliat the term rheumatic gout is a misnomer, or rather that it is a name conferred on a nonentity— a title without an estate. Surely these cannot be the same diseases, in the one of which uric acid is always present in the blood in abnormal amount, while in the other it exists only in the usual normal quantity. Yet such has been proved to be the case relatively to gout and riieumatism. They are diseases essen- tially distinct, incapable of being merged, and therefore not even a hybrid can be expected where union is uncommon, if not impos- sible. As this is a matter on which it is of great importance that our views should be definite and correct, 1 make no apology for presenting the following rather long extract from the excellent paper already referred to;—Can rubeola, asks Dr. Garrod, become scarlatina, or scarlatina rubeola ? Doubtless it is not unfrequently difficult to diagnose certain cases of either of these diseases, at any rate, simply from the present condition of the patient; it is not, however, customary to designate such cases by the compound name of rubeolo-scarlatina, or scarlatino-rubeola ; for we feel confident that each of these diseases is produced by a special poison, and has its own special pathology, although the symptoms produced by one may occasionally simulate those of the other. So, also, it may be asked, can rheumatism merge into gout, or vice versa? Has not each of these affections also its own * On the presence of gouty deposit in tlie cartilages of joints and in burssc, s.-e an able and interesting article by Dr. William Budd, in vol. xxxviii. of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions (1855), p. 2B3. t .Mcdico-C'liinu jrical Tran.-^actiuns, veil, .xxxvii. (1854). p. 181.