great distempers; and whatever is offensive to the animal oeconomy runs into the gout: we may by prudence so regulate that habit, as to make it a salutary one. This prognostic is much confirm'd by what has been observ'd in the cure of the gout by the moxa. It frequently makes so true a solution of the crisis, that the patient is freed for several years after. The distemper is either lett out, or its texture destroy'd. Thus Sir John Tyrwhit of Lincolnshire, a worthy patriot, who is most grievously afflicted with the gout, burnt it once with moxa, and it return'd not for 7 years after. And such most probably will often be the effect of using our oyls, for the same reason. Some that have open'd a vein upon the part, or made an incision into it, have cur'd it at present, and it has not return'd of some years after. This evidently proves, that the common fitts of the gout are not perfectly critical: but that when the matter of a fitt is wholly lett out or destroy'd; nature takes a considerable time (especially in people of temperate lives) to create enough de novo for the succeeding fitt. I apprehend good use may be made of these kind of hints, and that future experience will produce many advantages from our specific, which we cannot yet foresee.
What
