Climate. Choice of Residence. Clothing. Exercise. Massage. General Hydro-therapy. Importance of thorough Physical Examination. Individual Reactive Peculiarities. Prophylactic Measures. Contra-indications and Untoward Complications. Methods of Application of General Hydro-therapy. Immersion Baths. Aix and Vichy Massage. Vapour Baths. Indications for Sub-thermal Baths. Local Hydro-therapy. Varieties of Douche. Treatment by Hyperæmia _pp._ 418-430 CHAPTER XXXII MINERAL SPRINGS AND CHOICE OF SPA Difficulties of Definition and Classification. Radio-activity. General Principles of Spa Treatment. Physiological Action of Radium Emanation. Activation of Body Ferments. Influence of Uric Acid Metabolism. Increased Excretion of Uric Acid. Subjective Phenomena of Gout in Relation to Blood Content and Excretion of Uric Acid. Therapeutic Action and Application. Alimentary Disorders. Glycosuria. Raised Blood Pressure. Choice of Spa. The Spare and the Obese. Waters Suitable for Various Types of Dyspepsia. Bickel’s Experiments. Mineral Waters in Associated Morbid Conditions. Glycosuria. Oxaluria. Phlebitis. Respiratory Disorders. Fibrositis. Gouty Eczema. Uric Acid Gravel. Arterio-sclerosis. Chronic Nephritis. Concluding Remarks on Spa Treatment _pp._ 431-465 INDEX _pp._ 457-469 CHAPTER I HISTORICAL AND INTRODUCTORY THE ANTIQUITY OF GOUT “Teeth, bones, and hair,” quoth the Sage of Norwich, “give the most lasting defiance to corruption,” and were it not that “Time which antiquates antiquities and hath an art to make dust of all things hath yet spared these minor monuments,” it might perhaps have been inferred that gout was the primordial arthritic disease that afflicted mankind. That it was the first articular affection to achieve clinical individuality may be allowed, but, from the aspect of antiquity, gout is relatively modern—the appanage of civilisation. True, Hippocrates, discoursing in the famous Asclepion at Cos, enunciated his aphorisms on gout some 300 years before the Christian Era, the dawn of which moreover found Cicero in his discussions at Tusculum lamenting its excruciating tortures “doloribus podagræ cruciari” and the peculiar burning character of its pains “cum arderet podagræ doloribus.”