fermented liquors;
and as small-beer is of such various strength, he was advised to drink
exactly two wine glasses, about four ounces, of wine mixed with three or
four times its quantity of water, with or without lemon and sugar, for his
daily potation at dinner, and no other fermented liquor of any kind; and
was advised to eat flesh-meat with any kind of boiled vegetables, and
fruit, with or without spice. He has now scrupulously continued this
regimen for above five years, and has had an annual moderate gouty paroxysm
of a few weeks, instead of the confinement of so many months, with great
health and good spirits during the intervals.

The following is a more particular account of the history of this case;
being part of a letter which Mr. Wilmot wrote on that subject at my
entreaty.

"I entered into the army with an excellent constitution at the age of
fifteen. The corps I served in was distinguished by its regularity,
that is, the regular allowance of the mess was only one pint of wine
per man each day; unless we had company to dine with us; then, as was
the general custom of the time, the bottle circulated without limit.
This mode of living, though by no means considered as excess for men,
was certainly too great for a youth of my age. This style of living I
continued, when with the regiment, till the latter end of the year
1769, when I had the misfortune to sleep in a damp bed at Sheffield on
a journey to York, but arrived there before I felt the ill effects of
it. I was then seized with a violent inflammatory rheumatism with great
inflammation of my eyes, and was attended by Dr. Dealtry; so violent
was the disorder, that I was bled for it eight times in less than a
fortnight; and was three months, before I could consider my health
perfectly re-established. Dr. Dealtry told me, that I should be subject
to similar attacks for many years; and that he had no doubt, from the
tendency he found in my habit to inflammation, that, when I was farther
advanced in life, I should change that complaint for the gout. He
predicted truly; for the three succeeding winters I had the same
complaint, but not so violently; the fourth winter I escaped, and
imputed my escape to the continuance of cold bathing during the whole
of that winter; after that I never escaped it, till I had a regular and
severe fit of the gout: after the first attack of