In the fit, if the patient be young and strong, his diet ought to be thin and cooling, and his drink of a diluting nature; but where the constitution is weak, and the patient has been accustomed to live high, this is not a proper time to retrench. In this case he must keep nearly to his usual diet, and should take frequently a cup of strong negus, or a glass of generous wine. Wine-whey is a very proper drink in this case, as it promotes the perspiration without greatly heating the patient. It will answer this purpose better if a tea-spoonful of _sal volatile oleosum_, or spirits of hartshorn, be put into a cup of it twice a-day. It will likewise be proper to give at bed-time a tea-spoonful of the volatile tincture of _guaiacum_ in a large draught of warm wine-whey. This will greatly promote perspiration through the night. As the most safe and efficacious method of discharging the gouty matter is by perspiration, this ought to be kept up by all means, especially in the affected part. For this purpose the leg and foot should be wrapt in soft flannel, fur, or wool. The last is most readily obtained, and seems to answer the purpose better than any thing else. The people of Lancashire look upon wool as a kind of specific in the gout. They wrap a great quantity of it about the leg and foot affected, and cover it with a skin of soft dressed leather. This they suffer to continue for eight or ten days, and sometimes for a fortnight or three weeks, or longer, if the pain does not cease. I never knew any external application answer so well in the gout. I have often seen it applied when the swelling and inflammation were very great, with violent pain, and have found all these symptoms relieved by it in a few days. The wool which they use is generally greased, and carded or combed. They chuse the softest which can be had, and seldom or never remove it till the fit be entirely gone off. The patient ought likewise to be kept quiet and easy during the fit. Every thing that affects the mind disturbs the paroxysm, and tends to throw the gout upon the nobler parts. All external applications that repel the matter are to be avoided as death. They do not cure the disease, but remove it from a safer to a more dangerous part of the body, where it often proves fatal. A fit of the gout is to be considered as Nature’s method of removing something that might prove destructive to the body, and all that we can do, with safety, is to promote her intentions, and to assist her in expelling the enemy in her own way. Evacuations by bleeding, stool, &c. are likewise to be used with caution; they do not remove the cause of the disease, and sometimes by weakening the patient prolong the fit: but where the constitution is able to bear it, it will be of use to keep the body gently open by diet, or very mild laxative medicines.