paroxysm, is, in my opinion, imprudent. To prevent one fit of the gout, goes farther towards a cure, than to relieve many.

The gout being generally the production of the over-action of exciting powers, it requires a high degree of exciting powers to reach and effectually to affect the lower degree of excitability: but to raise this degree of excitement by a great proportion of an individual stimulus, appears to me not so agreeable as to use a combination of stimulants, especially those that consist in the various modes of applying electricity. But I do not mean to exclude the assistance of other stimulating powers; but that in extraordinary cases, or violent attacks of the gout, the most powerful of all other stimulants, viz. opium, should be conjoined.

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