The best Way of curing the Gout, (if it may be allowed that Name) is to prevent it, that is, to hinder the Generation of this gouty Humour in the Body; this is to be effected no other way, that I know of, but by Diet: While the digestive Powers of the Body are in such full Strength and Vigour, as perfectly to assimilate the Food into its own Substance, and they be not oppressed with greater Loads than they are able to manage, the Choice of particular kinds of Diet will be of little Consequence; but these are always defective in gouty Persons, and these Defects are productive of different Habits in different Constitutions, which must be attended to in Rules for Diet in general, as well as in the Gout. Long Habits are not suddenly changeable with Safety; and after the _Ætas vergens_, the human Body doth not freely admit of Changes. A Body always supported in an high Manner, with Flesh Meats, and Wine, will not well bear a sudden Change to a low Diet; and on the contrary, a Body fed upon Water and Vegetables, will not well bear a sudden Change to an high Diet; sudden Repletions or Evacuation is dangerous, and therefore _Celsus_ well advises, _Nullum cibi genus fugere, quo populus utatur, interdum in convictu esse, interdum ab eo se retrahere; modo plus justo, modo non amplius assumere_, but this is to be understood of People in Health. Milk seems to be the best Medium of Diet, and yet from what was before said of it, there must be many gouty Constitutions it will not agree with; the same may be said of Turneps, which have been in their Day reckoned Specifick to the Gout as well as Milk; and the Truth is, that many Persons have suffered irreparable Damage, and some lost their Lives, by attempting particular Diets in improper Habits of Body. It is utterly disagreeable either to Reason or Experience, to fix any one general Rule of Diet that shall agree with all Constitutions, or even all gouty Constitutions. The particular Constitutions of gouty Persons are hardly reducible to general Rules, and nothing but Observations, and accurate Judgment, can determine upon them so as to direct a proper Diet. _Lewis Cornaro_, who is one of the strongest Instances of the force of Diet, in the little Account he hath published, tells us that he found several Particularities in his own Constitution, which his Physicians could no way satisfy him in. One Instance is much to our purpose, old Wine disagreed so much with him, that in the Months of _July_ and _August_, in his later Years, he was forced to abstain altogether from Wine, this generally brought him to Death’s Door every Year with perfect Weakness; for though he had been gouty, and cured of it by Diet, he never refrained from Flesh Meat or Wine in some small Quantities, nor could he relish or digest his Food without Wine: So soon as the Grapes began to turn, even before they were full Ripe, he had Wine pressed out for himself, whence he was wonderfully restored,