On gout : its history, its causes, and its cure / by William Gairdner.

  • Gairdner, William, 1793-1867.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On gout : its history, its causes, and its cure / by William Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/318 (page 14)
    DIFFERENT SPECIES OF GOUT. and form of the disease. It might be easy to devise a better nomenclature; but these names are now well known, and I am averse to the introduction of new terms into a science already overloaded to such a degree, that the most distinguished practitioners feel the language of our profession more copious than useful, or easily remembered. But there is a distinction to be made in the history of the regular gout of far more importance than these artificial ones; it is that of the different stages of the disease, marking its nature by the efiect on the constitution, and guiding our practice by an accurate appreciation of the inroad it has made. In my experience of this complaint, it has appeared to me to divide itself most naturally, and very easily, into three stages. These, indeed, are not to be separated by any very clear outline, nor by any precise intermissions of time. They are charac- terised by their effect on the constitution, and are so plainly marked in the history of each individual case, that they cannot fail to impress the mind of a thoughtful practitioner. In the first stage of gout, the patient, whose strength is yet undiminished, and whose constitu- tion is unhm-t, has experienced the attacks of the disease at irregular and distant intervals. These attacks, it is true, have been severe, and, for the time, have weakened him both generally and locally.