Spratt, Eldridge

A Synopsis of the Symptoms of Gout at the Heart

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. RHEUMATISM. Allied to Gout.?Usually divided into Three Classes.? Should be a Fourth Class.?Rheumatic Fever.?Its Fluctuations from Joint to Joint.?State of Patient's Skin. ? Expression of Countenance. ? State of the Blood, and Beneficial Effects from relieving it.? Chronic Rheumatism. ? Opinions of Doctors Barclay and Garrod.?Essential Differences between Rheuma- tism and Gout Proper. Allied to Gout, rheumatism, and rheumatic gout are so clearly allied that they may be rightly considered as belonging to the same family; for though the causes be distinct, they may produce the same results; and distinct results may be generated by the same causes. Thus, a chill will produce rheumatism or gout, so will a derangement of the digestive system when overcharged with foreign agents. Whatever uncertainty may be attributed to the pathology and cause of gout, there is much more as regards the cause and symptoms of rheumatism, and therefore the following observations shall convey something more than merely placing before the reader the most recent views upon this affection. This disease, like gout, has been Usually divided into various classes according to divided 1 into three- the various views of different authors. classes. It would be well to adopt the most ., .. ' Should be- recent and most comprehensive division, J8ulfch viz., that of acute, muscular, and chronic. To these classes my experience suggests that a fourth may be added with great propriety, viz., nervo-rheumatic, in which the nervous system alone appears to be affected. An acute attack of rheumatism is known Rheumatic as rheumatic fever: it constitutes rheuma-fcver- tism, combined as it were with fever, accompanied by rigors followed by pain, swelling, and redness in s...