OBSERVATIONS ON THE GOUT and RHEUMATISM.
EXHIBITING Instances of Persons who were greatly relieved in the Fit of the GOUT; and of others who were cured of the GOUT in the Head, Stomach, and Bowels; of obstinate RHEUMATISMS; and of the Swellings, Stiffness, and Contractions of the Limbs, after irregular or long-continued Fits of the GOUT: by Medicines discovered in AMERICA.
WITH A SHORT ACCOUNT OF Some MEDICINES, and Ways of curing DISEASES, used by the Native INDIANS.
To which are added, A few remarkable CASES of other DISEASES.
Humbly Inscribed to the COLLEGE of PHYSICIANS By HENRY FLOWER, an AMERICAN.
New Things do I declare: before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
Isaiah.
LONDON: Printed for E. COOKE, at the Royal Exchange.
MDCCLXVI.
TO THE PRESIDENT and MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE of PHYSICIANS OF LONDON, THESE OBSERVATIONS OF THE GOUT AND RHEUMATISM, Are Humbly Inscribed, BY THEIR Most Obedient Servant, HENRY FLOWER.
TO THE PRESIDENT and MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE of PHYSICIANS LONDON.
GENTLEMEN,
THOUGH I have not the honour of being known to any one of you, I think I cannot address the following pages but to you.
Every person who is sick and takes medicines is sensible of the relief he meets with from them, and therefore is the best judge of their merit and efficacy: but God be praised for his goodness to us poor mortals, the discoveries and improvements I have made in treating the Gout and Rheumatism are so successful, that while they meet with the blessings of the afflicted, they can abide the severest examination of you gentlemen of the faculty, which emboldens me to lay this account before you.
I present you with only a few cases out of a great number; these will serve to shew you what has been done; and as several patients have applied to me since I have been in this city, whom I have not yet had leisure, on account of other business, to attend, I may hereafter lay before you some observations made on the spot, when I have compleated those affairs that to me are more material; and for your further satisfaction, and for the satisfaction of the public, you may then examine my patients before I begin with them, visit them under the operation of the medicines, and see the event.
Some of the following cases are well known to several gentlemen in London; one of the patients (Captain Samuel Bayard) is now in town, and may be examined on the subject; and I could moreover refer to a physician of eminence, at present in this city, who can, if he pleases, give a full and satisfactory account of these matters, as he attended several of my patients while under cure; and I openly and honestly communicated to him, for his candid behaviour to me, the medicines I use in the Gout, Rheumatism, and other obstinate diseases; and I find he has made some considerable cures with them in these countries.
It will be no disadvantage, I hope, in your eyes, that the person whom providence made the instrument of these discoveries, was not regularly brought up to the business of physic;
for the race is not to the swist, nor the battle to the strong.
My own ill health first made me read physic: I afterwards searched into chemistry and the virtues of plants, and made numberless wearisome experiments in those ways, and on human bodies in sickness and in health; by which means, I fell upon some of the medicines I now use with such uncommon success in various stubborn, and till now, incurable maladies.
In the year 1754, I was called to a gentleman, who was threatned with a mortification while he was in a violent fit of the Gout. He had been frequently attacked with the Gout, and at this time was greatly afflicted with it in the wrist, fingers, feet, ancles and knees. I gave him some medicines to prevent the impending mortification; and, to my great surprize, that was not only effected, but in a few days all the gouty complaints went off, which he informed me used to continue between two and three months. This unexpected success encouraged me to pursue the lucky hint, and I have ever since that time made many experiments in relation to the Gout and the means to relieve or cure it, till I brought the practice to the present degree of certainty and success.
That you may kindly receive this account of a new discovery, and that it may hereafter, by your superior abilities, be made more useful to the afflicted, is the hearty wish of
Your humble servant, H. FLOWER.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE GOUT AND RHEUMATISM.
THE Gout has been so long esteemed an incurable disorder, that mankind have at last brought themselves to think an attempt to cure it to be imprudent, as well as impracticable; as if it was more advantageous to enjoy health for nine months in the year at the severe penance of a painful illness the other three, than, by eradicating the cause of those evils, to pass the whole year in full vigour and strength. This absurd notion puts me in mind of what I have read somewhere of the inhabitants of the Alps, who being in general subject to monstrous swellings about the throat, look upon those horrid deformities as so many real beauties. It is a comfort indeed that we can thus draw pleasure out of pain, and persuade ourselves that what we cannot obtain would be improper for us to possess.
For my part, I do not pretend to cure the Gout so that it will never return; but I am by no means convinced that it is impossible to do it. I do not pretend to do it, because the experience I have had is not long enough to warrant me to say so, or to think so; and yet the experience I have had gives me great reason to imagine it not impossible. It is upon experience alone that I ground my judgment and my reasoning upon these matters. I shall say nothing of the nature of the Gouty matter, and how it is formed in the body, or how the fits of the Gout are brought on, for all that is mere theory and supposition; I shall only argue from what I have seen and from what I have done. We may say of the Gout what we do of Fevers, Pleurisies, Agues, Dropsies, Jaundice, &c. that though they be once cured they may return again: but, for my part, experience, and plain reasoning from it, authorise me to carry the matter much further; and I can readily conceive, that the constitution and habit of body of Gouty persons, which dispose them to the disorder, may, by the use of medicines, be so amended, altered, and as it were changed, (like unto that of a healthy person who never had the Gout) that it will never afterwards, or at least for a long time, generate or collect any Gouty matter. Now to judge whether this can be done let experience be our guide. Many things have been recommended as infallible for radically curing the Gout; but what happened on useing them? Some of them indeed prevented the returns of the disorder, but then, as far as I can find, the patient never enjoyed sound and strong health; from whence it is plain those things did not cure, but suppressed the disorder: Now, on the contrary, if the patient had become active, vigorous, strong and robust, we might pronounce the medicines were truly beneficial, and the end proposed to be properly answered by them. With regard to the medicines I use, I must honestly confess that many of my patients have had returns of the Gout since I first took them in hand, (but not oftner, nor indeed so often, as before) so that all the merit of the medicines in those cases consisted in completely carrying off a fit in some intermediate time, from two days to about twelve, according to the violence of the disorder and constitution of the person that in all appearance would have tortured the patient for two or three months. But whether the return of the disorder in these patients was owing to their irregularity in the use of the medicines, or to the insufficiency of the medicines to work a thorough change in the constitution, I cannot pretend to say; I speak only what I know: I have, however, had other patients who used to be afflicted with a fit once or twice in a year, or in two years, but who after going through a course of my medicines regularly, and living prudently for sometime afterwards, have never had a return, but grown hearty and strong, as indeed every Gouty person who took them have done. It is now above twelve years since I administred the medicines to some of these patients, and it is from thence that I am inclined to think a radical cure may be made, though, as I said before, the short experience of so few years will not allow me to be intirely of that opinion, much more to affirm it as a fact; and therefore, notwithstanding the probability of the thing, I leave it to time and further experience to determine, whether the Gout can be radically cured or not.
I thought it necessary to say thus much to prevent people being carried away with wrong notions of things, or forming wrong notions of what I say; but after all, all I know by experience is, that these medicines completely carry off the present regular fit with expedition and safety; but that, where the disorder is lest to itself, nature seldom makes a perfect despumation of the Gouty matter, which I take to be the reason that one fit comes so quickly upon the back of another, and that the joints are so greatly injured by the disorder: whereas, by these medicines, the body is perfectly cleared of the Gouty particles, the next fit does not come on so soon, and the limbs and joints are preserved. I know too by experience that they bring the irregular Gout to be regular, or expel it the body without going through those regular stages, as frequently happens where the Gout affects the head, stomach or bowels: and I also know by experience that they cure the swellings, stiffness, and contractions of the limbs, which are occasioned by catching cold in the fit, or by the long continuance or frequent return of the disorder. As for the Sciatica and Rheumatism, they are in general so nearly allied to the Gout, that I need say nothing about them.
It may be asked how the medicines work upon the body to perform such cures with so much ease to the patient; to which I answer, that I don't know, nor don't care. Facts speak for themselves, and put it beyond all doubt, that such cures have been wrought, and I am ready to shew before any body that they may be done again; but putting the evidence of facts out of the question, I would beg to ask those gentlemen who are for judging of the practicability of things by the weak powers of human reason, whether it is not accusing the goodness and wisdom of Providence, who has enriched this world with thousands of plants to nourish our bodies and relieve our infirmities, to suppose that he has left us destitute of assistance in the Gout? or is it not more reasonable to think, that, amidst the vast variety of plants he hath created for our use, he may have endued some with virtues and powers to cure this the most painful and grievous disease mankind is liable to, though their manner of operation should be concealed from us? Intermitting Fevers and Agues puzzled the faculty before the Peruvian Bark was known in Europe; the bite of the Rattle Snake is mortal in a few hours; the best physicians and Surgeons cannot check the poison, but the Indians have taught us to cure it with a common herb.
Those poor Savages the American Indians, with no other assistance than experience, and the natural light of reason, have cured many diseases that baffled the most ingenious of the faculty. In Sinous Ulcers they make a decoction of certain herbs and roots, with which they bath and wash the Ulcers, pouring part of it into the cavities; these applications soon soften and dissolve the hardness, new flesh sprouts up, and the Ulcer heals. I have attempted to imitate their practice in this respect, and have succeeded in it in some cases of fistulas of the Anus, and particularly in one who had been cut in vain. The use of the Seneca Snake-root, and some other medicines we learned from the Indians, need not be mentioned to prove their knowledge of useful herbs. By the abuse of strong liquor, they are much troubled with nervous diseases, that in women occasion miscarriages, and many other female complaints; for all which they take a decoction of an Aromatic-root, that is of great service. I have given it myself in Nervous cases, and have experienced better effects from it than f
om any vegetable or chemical medicine I ever tried. This root is very difficult to be got, growing only in particular places; and it is of so delicate a nature, that it does not retain its virtues so long as one could wish. The Indians are much exposed to cold, and frequently have their hearing much hurt by it, which they cure with the juice of a certain herb mixed with Bear's grease, or fish oil, and put into the ears. Some who have tried it told me that it excited the sensation of an explosive noise in the ear, which opened the organ, after which their hearing returned: but the most curious thing in their practice, that I have seen, is the different kinds of baths (I mean baths prepared from different herbs) and ways of sweating for different diseases: with these and the decoctions they give the patient to drink at the same time, they do wonders in many diseases. There is now in London a person of indisputable veracity, who had the operation of sweating performed upon him by an Indian for a violent tooth-ach, and pain in the face, he had been long troubled with, which was soon and so effectually removed that he has never had the least return of it since.
CASES.
MR. THOMAS WHITE, Merchant. This gentleman was about forty years old when he became my patient; about eight years before, he was attacked, for the first time, with the Gout; he had several fits in the following years; for two or three years past the fits were very violent, and usually continued from six weeks to two months, sometimes three months, before he was able to walk abroad. Eight months before I saw him he was taken with an intermitting fever: in that disorder he complained of a pain in the right side, which grew more troublesome at times afterwards. The next fit of the gout came on with its usual violence, and the pain in his right side returned with it. In the nights his pains became so violent, as not only to deprive him of sleep, but almost of his senses. The disorder had continued about three days before the medicines were given, and in ten days after the first dose he walked to the coffee house; nothing but a slight tenderness in the soles of his feet remaining, which also soon went off: and what is remarkable, he never felt any thing of the pain in his side since. He continued perfectly strong, hearty, and active for four years, without refraining from those indulgencies which a hospitable, social, and friendly disposition led him into. He then underwent such another fit as the above, and from that time he has also enjoyed the same firm state of health as before.
Mr. LEASHELEAR, being attacked with pains in the feet, resembling the first fits of the Gout, sent for a doctor, who gave him the volatile tincture of Guaicum, and applied pultices to his feet, which repelled the disorder into his breast, neck, and head, with such violence, that he was thought to be expiring. The medicines I administred relieved him in two days; but in crossing a wide ferry before he had recovered his strength, he caught cold and had a relapse, which, however, was carried off in two or three days by the same medicines, and he has from that time continued perfectly well, active, and strong.
JAMES LOWEY, aged about 70 years, had been bedridden, at times, for several months with the Hip Gout. He had tried many practitioners, and taken various medicines, but could get no relief. His thigh and leg were diminished. Notwithstanding these discouraging circumstances, I administred things to him, and in process of time the thigh and leg recovered their size and strength, and he came to walk as well as ever.
Capt. SAMUEL BAYARD, aged 60, about 23 years ago was attacked with the Gout, and from that time, till he applied to me, commonly had a fit once a year, or thereabouts. During the fit he not only had violent pains in all his limbs, but in his stomach and bowels. The fits seldom went off in less than six weeks, but in general they continued much longer, as two or three months. He always lived high and free. From the very first fit his feet and hands never recovered their natural feeling, but were dry, hard, and scaly, with great heat in them; and this, as well in the intervals between the fits, as in the fit itself. His knees and ancles at last were enlarged, his feet and toes always swelled, and all those joints were so weak and stiff that he could scarce move them; walking, as he expressed it, as if he had no joints, or as if his legs and feet were made of wood. His wrists, hands, and fingers, were not quite so bad, though in a similar condition, his fingers particularly being so stiff that he could not by any means extend them out strait, nor bend them without difficulty: all this while he was much troubled with the gravel, and passed several small stones. When he applied to me in January, 1760, he was in the height of a fit: the first night I did nothing, the second I gave him some medicines, the day following he was free of pain, and in a few days more began to walk about the room. By continuing the medicines a fortnight, his feet and hands began to regain their natural feeling, the hardness, heat, and dryness going off; and in about six weeks or two months his limbs and joints became so pliant, that he walked with as much ease as before he had the Gout. He went on, however, taking the medicines for several weeks longer. Since that time he has felt so little of the Gravel, that, as he says, it was not worth notice. Two years after this course for the Gout he had a slight touch of the Gravel, and being costive, took an opening medicine when he went to bed, and drank some warm whey after it: but contrary to my directions, to take it upon an empty stomach, he made a very hearty supper, which, with the medicine and the whey disagreeing with his stomach and bowels, occasioned it to work sooner than was intended: he fell into a sweat, and the medicine beginning to operate downwards, he very imprudently got up, with the sweat upon him, and went to a necessary in the yard. The night was very cold and wet; he was suddenly struck with a Palsy of all the left side of his body; for five of six days he had violent pains in that side, but none in the other: the whole side gradually withered, and became emaciated. He was confined to his bed for some weeks; the withered parts at last began to recover their plumpness and strength, and, with my best endeavours, it was about three months before he regained his strength, and walked with his usual firmness. From that time to the present he has enjoyed perfect health and the free use of his limbs. He is now as well as any man of his years. His hands have their natural feeling, his feet perspire freely, his joints are of their natural size, he has had no pain in his stomach or bowels, his appetite is good, and he sleeps well. He has had nothing of the Gou
since I first took him in hand till within these six months, that he once or twice felt slight twichings in his feet, but they went off directly with a copious perspiration on the parts.
I SAMUEL BAYARD, now in London, having read the above account, declare it to be true in every particular, and am ready, if required, to attest the same; and that several other Gouty persons, whom I am well acquainted with, have received great benefi
from Mr. Flower.
Mr. GOMEZ, Merchant, near 60 years of age, but much more in constitution, ha
been subject to the Gout for 30 years: fo
many of the last years he neither had a compleat fit, nor was ever entirely free of pain his legs feet and ancles were greatly enlarged, and so weak that he could scarce wal
or stand. He was very desirous of trying these remedies; and though it was represented to him that his disorder was too much riveted to admit of a cure, or of much relief, he insisted upon taking them. He did so for about four weeks: in that time his legs were somewhat reduced, and the motion of his joints became easier and freer, but these alterations were of short continuance; for in two or three months his joints and legs relapsed nearly into their old state. It is to be observed, that the medicines brought his irregular pains to a regular though slight fit, which was soon relieved: after this he had much less pain, and enjoyed much better health.
Mrs. K. aged 49. This lady for some years had been afflicted with a Rheumatism in her limbs and back, attended with hysterical complaints, as they were called. In three weeks she was freed of all her complaints, and since that time has grown fat, hearty and strong.
WILLIAM POST, though but 26 years of age, has had several very severe fits of the Gout, and between them was much troubled with what were called Rheumatic pains. He was perfectly cured of a Fit of the Gout in eight or ten days, and is now in a better state of health than he has been in from the first attack, having felt nothing of the Gout or Rheumatism ever since.
Mrs. ROSEVELT, aged 54, had been troubled many years with violent Rheumatic and Hysteric complaints: her hands and fingers were greatly deprived of their motion, and the joints of the fingers were considerably enlarged and contracted; several of the faculty had attempted to relieve her. She had also tried a variety of things recommended by her acquaintances; from some of which she received a little temporary relief. After a course of these medicines her pains became easier, and she acquired the use of her hands and fingers, the swellings that were upon them being softened and diminished.
Captain HICKEY, aged about 38. This gentleman for several years had been afflicted, at least once a year, with a violent fit of the Gout. Latterly it seized his arms, hands and knees as well as feet. These fits not only confined him to his bed or room for two months or more, but even after the fit was gone off he was liable to have short but painful returns of the disorder upon catching the least cold. He was cured of the fit in less than half of the time it usually took to go off, and has not felt any thing like the returns of it, which formerly happened upon being exposed to the cold.
Captain PAVEY, aged about 50, had been subject to the Gout about 18 years. While he was in a frontier garrison, in 1759, he was seized with a violent return of the disorder in his hands, knees and feet, and from the badness of the accommodations at that place suffered greatly. The disorder, instead of going off in about six or eight weeks, as usual, confined him almost entirely for four months to his bed; and though his pains by that time became less violent and constant, they still continued to afflict him. His ancles, feet and toes became thicker, and grew so weak and stiff that he could not walk without great uneasiness and difficulty. In this condition he was brought to town in 1761. He took the medicines, and lived very regularly for about four weeks, and received so much benefit from them, that, being able to walk or go abroad with greater ease and facility, he met with too many temptations not to be guilty of some intemperance: but notwithstanding these irregularities, and repeated neglects in taking his medicines, in about two months, from the time he began to take them, he got almost rid of the frequent pains he had been troubled with since the last fit; his ancles, &c. became less, the joints grew stronger and more supple, and he might now have walked with firmness and ease on any ground, but for a pointed hardness or cornlike substance on the ball of the great toe, that gave him pain whenever, in walking the streets, he happened to tread on a round stone. In May following he went to sea, and was 28 days on his passage to Bristol; during the voyage he was very well, hearty and lived free. A few weeks after his arrival in England he had a slight fit of the Gout, the pains were but trifling, and in three days, his feet having sweat plentifully, the disorder went entirely off. He continued after that perfectly well, and felt no inconveniency or pain but what the induration occasioned when he happened to tread directly upon it: he found himself indeed so well and hearty, that he thought of procuring a commission again in the army, which he had quitted on account of being rendered unfit for service by this disorder.
I am far from thinking this gentleman is cured of the Gout, but I am persuaded, that if he had behaved with more regularity the time he was taking the medicines, he would have received relief sooner, and continued a longer time free from a return of the disorder.
Captain VALENTINE, aged about 50. This gentleman had always indulged too much in social pleasures to escape the Gout: for several years he had been very much subject to it: the attacks of it were sometimes regular and of a longer or shorter duration: the last fit happened when he commanded a Privateer, and was on a cruise at sea: his arms, wrists, fingers, knees, ancles, feet and toes were cruelly afflicted: he was confined on ship board to his bed about three or four months, and was afterwards grievously troubled with pains in all the above mentioned parts. Those joints were all swelled, and so stiff and weak, that he could not write, and he fed himself and walked with great difficulty. In this condition he had been several months when he sent to me. He took the medicines with some interruption about four months, and by that time regained, in a great measure, the use of his limbs, and got quit of his pains; the thickness of some of his joints went off, in others it was much reduced: he got a good appetite, a good healthy complexion, slept well, and walked with ease and firmness. This happened in 1761: since that time he has had a fit or two, which went off in two or three days, without any assistance from medicine.
Mr. WILLIAM DARLINGTON, Wine Merchant, aged 45 years, had been severely afflicted with the Gout, once or twice a year, for 15 years. For two or three years past his legs were frequently swelled, and his ancles and upper part of the feet, for the most part of that time, were much enlarged and weaker than formerly. One leg was much more swelled than the other, and had several Scorbutic Ulcers upon it. The former fits of the Gout usually lasted eight or ten weeks. He had laboured under the present attack about four days when I was called to him, and from the violence of the symptoms imagined it would continue the usual time: he took the medicines regularly; the pains were carried off in 24 hours; the thickness and swellings of his leg, ancles and feet, which had lasted so long, diminished gradually; his appetite, strength and spirits returned; and he was able to walk about the house in 10 days: his feet continued tender, though free of pain, for a few days longer: but at the end of the fortnight he put on a pair of smaller shoes than he had wore for some years, and went abroad about his business. He has continued active, strong and hearty, without any illness whatever, or the least return either of his Gouty or Scorbutic complaints, though it is now above five years since he applied to me. He is much accustomed to stamp his feet with all his force, to shew how strong and free of disorders they are.
JOHN DUNSCOMB, Wine Merchant, 52 years of age, almost every spring and fall for near 20 years had been tormented with the Gout: he seldom got the better of a fit in less than two months, and they frequently continued longer. In the winter, 1760, he was taken with a return of the disorder in his hands, knees, and feet, attended with violent pains in his stomach, bowels, hips, &c. The fourth day from the beginning of the fit his breath was much oppressed, his knees, legs, and feet vastly swelled, and so much discoloured, that it was apprehended, by a gentleman of the faculty who saw him in the afternoon, that a mortification would come on before the next morning. In the evening he became delirious at times; in one of the intervals of sense he sent for me; I did for him what I thought proper; in a few hours afterwards his pains became easier; he passed a good night; the next morning the swelling of the knees, legs, and feet, was greatly abated, and they had regained their natural colour; he felt no pain, except a very little in an old scar on one knee, was lively and full of spirits, without thirst, and had a good appetite: in 10 days more he was perfectly well, a tenderness only remaining in his feet for some days longer. He has had lately a slight attack, that was too inconsiderable to deserve notice, going off in a day or two of itself; and when I left him in New York last January he was hearty and strong.
Mrs. ZURACHER, aged 32, having taken cold in lying-in, was seized with pains in all her joints, that fixed at last in her left knee, which swelled greatly, and became excessive hard and painful. It had been in this situation between two and three months when I was called, and was daily growing worse in spite of the internal and external medicines she used: but in a week after she was able to walk about, and at the end of the fortnight was quite well.
Mr. TROOP, Merchant. This gentleman, between 40 and 50 years of age, had been confined to his chamber in the winter for above six weeks, with a violent Rheumatism affecting most of his limbs. In the summer following he came to town and caught cold, which brought on a return of his disorder: the pain affected every limb, and almost every joint: his servants were obliged to put him to bed and take him up, being unable to help himself. Notwithstanding the advantage of the season, he apprehended, from the violence of the disease, that it would continue some weeks. When I saw him he had been ill but two or three days. I gave him some medicines in the evening, the next morning his pains were gone, the limbs were supple and easy, he got up without assistance, and in the afternoon went, in a carriage, a dozen miles to his country seat, and I never heard that he had the least return of it, though it is now above four years ago.
I insert the following case because I think it singular; and as I have mentioned the Indian Antispasmodic root, I shall add an instance or two of its effects.
JOHN ABEL, about 40 years of age. This man had been subject to the Epilepsy or Falling-Sickness for many years: the fits had latterly become more frequent than before: instead of attacking him once in ten days or a fortnight, they came on almost every day, and sometimes he had two or three fits in a day. The most remarkable thing in this case, and for which I relate it, was a sensation of intense coldness he complained of in his stomach: he described it to be like a piece in his stomach of the size of a dollar or greater, that was like so much ice. He took many things to warm his stomach, but the strongest spirits and the warmest medicines he could swallow gave him no relief. He had taken bark, Valerian, Steel, and other things, without benefit. Within a week from the time I began with him he got rid of the coldness in his stomach, and his fits stopt. I went on giving him medicines, and the fits did not return for three months; and in all probability he would have been completely cured, if he had not thought himself well, and upon the strength of that laid aside all restraint, and made too free with his constitution. The disorder then returned and gradually became worse; but before it had got to the former height he applied to a foreign practitioner, and died, as I was informed, of an apoplexy.
Mrs. B. a gentlewoman about 40 years old, had a numbness in one leg; had been long troubled with Dropsical swellings of the legs, and afflicted with various nervous complaints to a terrible degree. I gave her an infusion of the root I mentioned before; it promoted the discharge by urine, expelled vast quantities of wind, procured a good appetite, sweet refreshing sleep, and restored her to perfect health as a person now in London can testify.
Mrs. PELHAM, about forty years old, for a dozen years, and more, was afflicted with many nervous complaints, and many disorders in consequence of them: wind and swellings of the stomach and bowels, indigestion, costiveness, lowness of spirits, pains in the head, giddiness, universal languor and debility, pains in the breast, obstructions in the monthly evacuations, little urine, rising in the throat, cough, swelled legs, &c. In this long course of years she tried many doctors, and many medicines, that were recommended to her; but nothing gave her any more than momentary relief, except the Indian root; which, in a few weeks, removed all her complaints, and restored her to perfect health and strength.
I could relate many instances of persons who were rescued from destruction by these medicines, when the Gout, after destroying the joints, and going through the tragical scene described by Sydenham, had, at last, brought on most dangerous symptoms, by invading the noble parts, as the head, stomach, bowels, lungs, &c. The foregoing histories, however, sufficiently prove their great efficacy in the most stubborn cases; and therefore, instead of swelling this little tract with superfluous instances of the like nature, I shall throw together a few loose observations that may be of real use.
The Gout, it is well known, oftentimes puts on the appearance of other diseases: many such cases I have cured. In some instances I tried these medicines without any suspicion of the Gout being the cause of the disorder, or for any other reason than because the medicines were safe, and every thing else had been tried in vain; and I was agreeably surprised to see my patients get rid of their old complaints upon falling into a fit of the Gout. I have known this happen to several people who had been long afflicted with nervous and scorbutic diseases, as they were supposed to be; such as giddiness, dimness of sight, noise in the ears, pains and stiffness in the head and in the eyes, asthmas, pains in the breast, consumptions, palsies, pains in the loins mistaken for gravel or stone, oppression and lowness of spirits, fluxes, obstructions in the liver, certain female complaints, &c. all which arose from a Gouty cause, as the effects of the medicines, and the recovery of the patients, proved.
In the treatment of Gouty persons I do not confine myself to my own remedies: I take all the assistance I can from the medicines in common use; and, for that reason, I generally mix other medicines with my own, to assist or determine their operation and effects, as I think best, according to the constitution of the person, and the nature and seat of the disorder in different patients: I also vary the method of proceeding as to bleeding, vomiting, sweating, purging, &c. in different cases, in the management and regular application of which particulars I received considerable assistance and information, while I was in America, from Sir James Jay, to whom I communicated my discoveries and improvements, in return for his candid behaviour to me. And since I have mentioned that gentleman's name, I must take the liberty to add, that he saw several of the patients whose cases are related in this tract, and attended some of them, at the request of the persons, to assist me in the treatment of them.
I do not assert it as a fact, but I am inclined to think that these medicines, after carrying off the Gouty matter that occasions the present fit, prevent the return of the disorder by rectifying those particular secretions and excretions which are naturally destined to discharge those morbid particles that, when they are retained in the body, and collected in sufficient quantity, bring on the fit: and what particularly makes me think so is, that many people who are liable to the Gout feel slight pains whenever the perspiration in the feet is obstructed; that many people who have been troubled for years together with constant heat, driness, and frequent sharp pains in the feet, were perfectly cured when their feet were brought to perspire freely and naturally by the use of these medicines: and further, as far as I have been able to observe, those persons are most severely afflicted with the Gout who have the least perspiration in the feet.
The affinity between the nature of the Gout and Stone is well known; but I don't know that any one has taken notice that there is an affinity also in their cure. It has indeed, I think, been thought that some things which were supposed to have given relief in the Gout, increased the calculous complaints the patients were troubled with. If this be true, it amounts to no more than what I have said before, that those Gout medicines did not cure, but suppressed the disorder, and instead of expelling the Gouty matter, only diverted the natural course of it. But I have had the pleasure to observe, that some patients of mine, who were afflicted with both these cruel diseases, have met with relief for the Stone while I was treating them for the Gout alone. I shall say no more of the Stone at present, but defer the account of the experiments I made with various solvents, and of their effects on the body, till another opportunity.
I selected the preceding cases for publilication because they are all of long standing, and therefore the fittest to determine the merit of my discoveries and improvements; most of them happened above five years, none less than four years ago. Instances of a later date would be inconclusive; we could not depend on the continuance of the good effects of the medicines, nor could we be certain that bad consequences would not ensue: but in these cases both those points are sufficiently determined. These cases are some of the most favourable, as well as unfavourable, that occurred. I could relate some others of a more striking nature, which I suppress, that I might not give uneasiness, or seem to reflect on any person. I hope the public will excuse the inaccuracies of stile, &c. in this little performance, for I have bestowed more time and pains in searching into the works of nature, the powers of natural bodies, the productions of chemistry, and their effects on the human frame in various diseases, than in studying the beauties of language.
N. B.
Captain BAYARD, whose case has been related, may be seen at the NEW YORK Coffee-House in Sweetings-Alley, Cornhill, every day, about Change hours.
FINIS.