In recent years catarrh has become the word that is supposed to attract popular attention most, and accordingly is the watchword of the proprietary medicine manufacturer. A long time ago, that is, about half a century ago, catarrh was supposed really to mean something in medicine. Those were the days of humoral pathology, when disturbances of secretion were supposed to be the basis of all disease. Accordingly, whenever there was an excessive discharge from the nose, a patient was said to be suffering from catarrh, and as the nasal secretion was supposed to be connected in some way with the brain, it is easy to understand how significant such a pathological condition might well be thought. In more recent years, the word "catarrh" has still been employed by physicians who thoughtlessly employ terms that they think will be better understood by the laity, owing to their familiarity with them, though they have been outlived in medicine. From representing an affection of the nose, catarrh, as a consequence, has come to be employed for an excess of secretion from any mucous membrane. Accordingly we hear of catarrh of the stomach, catarrh of the bladder, or catarrh of the {101} bile-ducts, and there has come to the general public a notion that catarrh is an all-pervading affection whose ravages must be prevented, at all hazards, and whose beginning must be the signal for prompt medical treatment. As a matter of fact, catarrh, when it means anything, means only that stage of inflammation in which there is an increased secretion and which represents an inflammatory condition so mild as often to be described as only hyperaemic, that is, due to an increase of blood in the part. It is rather easy to understand that if more blood flows through a mucous membrane, there will be greater secretion from it than would normally be the case. This is what happens in the production of catarrh. As a rule, it is only a passing congestion without any lasting changes in the tissue. Catarrh may, however, continue to be present if the irritation, which originally caused the congestion, be allowed to continue. It is this irritation, however, which needs to be treated, and not the catarrhal inflammation, which is only a symptom of it. The three most used words in popular medicine,--catarrh, rheumatism, and gout,--when traced to their etymological signification, mean the same thing. Catarrh means a flowing down, rheumatism a state of flowing, both being formed from the Greek verb [Greek text], to flow, while gout is derived from the Latin word _gutta_, a drop, which hints at the excess of fluid that is supposed to be the basis of the disease.