follows, that every stimulus
will not be equally efficacious in curing every form of disease;
which is sufficiently confirmed by experience. Hence there may be
some ground for the appellation of specifics, as some medicines may
act more powerfully upon the part which is the principal seat of the
disease, than others do.

In the cure of diseases we ought always to attend to two things most
carefully: first, to employ the proper kinds of powers, and then not
to overdo them, so as to convert either diathesis into the other; and
by passing over the line of health, instead of the intended cure, to
substitute one disease instead of another, and thereby bring life
itself into danger.

LECTURE XIII.
ON THE GOUT.

There is no disease, with which the human race is afflicted, whose
nature has been more mistaken than that which is to form the subject
of our present consideration. It has been regarded by most
practitioners as a salutary effort of the body to expel some hurtful
cause, and restore health; and therefore has been looked upon as
desirable to the patient. To attempt to cure it, therefore, would
have been wrong, had it been curable; but it has likewise been looked
upon as beyond the reach of medicine, or perfectly incurable; and, on
both these accounts, after having tried a variety of drugs, without
any good effect, the physicians have at last abandoned their
patients, to the care of patience and flannel, which, if the
constitution be not very much shattered, will often see them through
the disease.

But that it is a salutary disease I deny; and I affirm, that it
restores health in no other way, than the indigestion of a habitual
dram drinker would be relieved by a disease in the throat, which
would, for a time, prevent his swallowing any more liquor; the
consequence would be, that his digestive powers would recover their
tone, and he would, after a few weeks, feel himself better.

In the same way the pain and fever, which attend gout, and at the
same time the inability to move, with the weakened stomach, and bad
appetite, prevent the continuance of the mode of life which brought
on the disease; and thus, a truce being obtained, the exhausted
excitability of the body is allowed to accumulate, and the
constitution, of course, feels itself renovated.

Were the disease to be viewed in this light, it is probable that many
patients might in future desist from their former mode of life, which
brought on the disease; an