Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/422

390] G O U partly to that fashionable superficial treatment which constantly aims at alleviating urgent symptoms, and partly to the difficulty of prevailing on those whimsical patients to pui- sne a steady and regular course of both medicine and diet, without which no radical cure of the gout can reasonably be expected. During a paroxysm of the goxit, the patient ought to be treated ac- cording to the state of his fever (which .see); and, as the crisis of the disease generally takes place in three or four weeks, either by transpiration of the pores, or the discharge of urine, those secretions should be promoted by the mildest sudorifics and diuretics. Hence diluent drinks, such as barley- water in which sal ammoniac has been dissolved, in the proportion of one dram to. each pint, should be liberally drunk ; but, where impu- rities in the first passages are sus- pected, gentle emetics may be ad- ministered ; and if fulness of blood prevail in the vessels, venesection will perhaps be advisable. — Ma- kixo, an Italian physician, pre- scribed for his gouty patients half a pound of olive oil to be swallowed xal times a day, with uncom- mon success: but we apprehend, that few persons will be inclined, or able, to take such profuse draughts. Meanwhile, the parts affected should be carefully covered with flannel 5 and though we do not approve of anodynes to be taken internally, because the crisis of this idy cannot be accomplished by Nature without painful efforts, yet the following applications have oc- onally been found of great ser- , in abating the most excruciat- ing pain, viz. oil of wormwood; or Peruvian balsam dissolved in . . pbpl; or a solution of sal ammo- GOU niao, in white wine; or a cataplasm made of elder flowers, boiled in cream, and applied as hot as the patient can bear it ; or oil of wax dropped on the part affected ; or the skin of an eel ; or liniments consisting of vinegar and soap or the leaves of the Rough Bindweed; or even fresh horse dung, &c. all have, in particular cases, been cm- ployed, and found productive of good effects Nevertheless, we by no means recommend these reme- dies to be indiscriminately or pro- miscuously used, as the propriety and safety of their application should be determined by professional ad- vice. When the gout retreats to more dangerous, internal parts, such as the breast and stomach, it is gene- rally attended with vomiting, which ought to be supported by small doses of ipecacuanha, about half a grain every ten minutes, while the parts affected are rubbed with, vitri- olic aether. As scon as the stomach is composed, small doses of cam- phor, or vitriolic aether, internally, will be of essential service to allay the spasmodic action of the viscera. At the same time, sinapisms should be applied to the soles of the feet, and the lower extremities kept warm ; a treatment by which the pain, as well as the seat of the dis- ease, easily returns to its former place. Various expedients and plans of regimen have been devised, in or- der to 'prevent, or retard, tin fits of the gout. As we cannot enter into the peculiarities of different c onstltution ., we shall Ik re briefly point out that mode of living which will, in general, be found the most conducive to the purpose. — Tern* k ranee, in tin abstinence frorn ;.iid, fermented ancj