Observations on the gout and rheumatism: Exhibiting instances of persons who were greatly relieved in the fit 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 ... By Henry Flower, an American.

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 imprac∣ticable; 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 some∣where of the inhabitants of the Alps, who being in general subject to monstrous swel∣lings about the throat, look upon those hor∣rid 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 im∣proper 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 mat∣ters. 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 re∣turn 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 use∣ing 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 pa∣tient had become active, vigorous, strong and robust, we might pronounce the medi∣cines were truly beneficial, and the end pro∣posed to be properly answered by them. With regard to the medicines I use, I must honest∣ly 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 medi∣cines 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 dis∣order 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 can∣not 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 proba∣bility of the thing, I leave it to time and fur∣ther 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 complete∣ly carry off the present regular fit with expe∣dition and safety; but that, where the disor∣der 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 regu∣lar 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 gene∣ral 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 an∣swer, that I don't know, nor don't care. Facts speak for themselves, and put it be∣yond all doubt, that such cures have been wrought, and I am ready to shew before any body that they may be done again; but put∣ting 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 nou∣rish our bodies and relieve our infirmities, to suppose that he has left us destitute of assistance in the Gout? or is it not more rea∣sonable to think, that, amidst the vast varie∣ty 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 conceal∣ed from us? Intermitting Fevers and Agues puzzled the faculty before the Peruvian Bark

was known in Europe; the bite of the Rat∣tle 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 de∣coction of certain herbs and roots, with which they bath and wash the Ulcers, pour∣ing part of it into the cavities; these appli∣cations 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 particular∣ly 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 li∣quor, they are much troubled with ner∣vous diseases, that in women occasion mis∣carriages, and many other female com∣plaints; 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 tri∣ed it told me that it excited the sensation of an explosive noise in the ear, which opened the organ, after which their hearing return∣ed: but the most curious thing in their prac∣tice, that I have seen, is the different kinds of baths (I mean baths prepared from diffe∣rent herbs) and ways of sweating for diffe∣rent 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 indis∣putable 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.