that kind of action, whether of
torpor or inflammation, with greater energy, than those actions excited in
the diseased liver; and when this new torpor or inflammation commences,
that with which it sympathises ceases; which I believe to be a general law
of associated inflammations.

The paroxysms of the gout would seem to be catenated with solar influence,
both in respect to their larger annual periods, and to their diurnal
periods--See Sect. XXXVI. 3. 6.--as the former occur about the same season
of the year, and the latter commence about an hour before sun-rise;
nevertheless the annual periods may depend on the succession of great
vicissitudes of cold and heat, and the diurnal ones on our increased
sensibility to internal sensations during sleep, as in the fits of asthma,
and of some epilepsies. See Sect. XVIII. 15.

In respect to the pre-remote cause or disposition to the gout, there can be
no doubt of its individually arising from the potation of fermented or
spirituous liquors in this country; whether opium produces the same effect
in the countries, where it is in daily use, I have never been well
informed. See Sect. XXI. 10, where this subject is treated of; to which I
have to add, that I have seen some, and heard of others, who have moderated
their paroxysms of gout, by diminishing the quantity of fermented liquors,
which they had been accustomed to; and others who, by a total abstinence
from fermented liquors, have entirely freed themselves from this
excruciating malady; which otherwise grows with our years, and curtails or
renders miserable the latter half, or third, of the lives of those, who are
subject to it. The remote cause is whatever induces temporary torpor or
weakness of the system; and the proximate cause is the inirritability, or
defective irritation, of some part of the system; whence torpor and
consequent inflammation. The great Sydenham saw the beneficial effects of
the abstinence from fermented liquors in preventing the gout, and adds, "if
an empiric could give small-beer only to gouty patients as a nostrum, and
persuade them not to drink any other spirituous fluids, that he might
rescue thousands from this disease, and acquire a fortune for his
ingenuity." Yet it is to be lamented, that this accurate observer of
diseases had not resolution to practise his own prescription, and thus to
have set an example to the world of the truth of his doctrine; but, on the
contrary, recommends Madeira, the st