Abominable, unutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceived,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire,

can be prevailed on to swear rebellion against it "For," says Dr
Heberden, "this seems to be the favourite 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. For, so much respect hath been shown to this
distemper, that all the other evils, except pain, which the real or
supposed gouty patient ever feels, are imputed most commonly not to his
having 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," he
further remarks, "was and is still much greater than the dread of having
it; and the world seems agreed patiently to submit to this tyrant, lest
a worse should come in its room." It is not difficult to account for
such absurdity, though it be quite impracticable to palliate it; and
what is worse, from its being founded on something more congenial to
human nature than even prejudice, it is almost impossible to remove it.
A single quotation more from the same author, so much in repute among
his professional brethren, will at once unravel the mystery, and show
how rare a thing a cure is, where the means essential to it are
necessarily dependent on the self-denial of the patient. "Strong wines,
and in no small quantity, have the reputation of being highly beneficial
to gouty persons; which notion they have very _readily_ and _generally_
received, not so much perhaps from a reasonable persuasion of its truth,
as from a desire that it should be true, because they love wine. Let
them consider, that a free use of vinous and spirituous liquors
peculiarly hurts the stomach and organs of digestion, and that the gout
is bred and fostered by those who indulge themselves in drinking much
wine; while the poorer part of mankind, who can get very little stronger
than water to drink, have better appetites than wine-drinkers, and
better digestions, and are far less subject to arthritic complaints. The
most perfect cures, of which I have been a witness, have been effected
by a total abstinence from spirits, and wine, and flesh, which in two or
three instances hath restored the helpless and miserable patients from a
sta