The extreme frequency with which _infective foci_ are met with in the victims of gout, the frequency, too, with which exacerbations of the disorder are presaged by _acute glandular affections_ of undeniably _infective_ source, is by no means adequately realised. For our forefathers gout began, and, forsooth, often ended, in the “stomach,” or it was the “liver” that was impeached. But the portal to the alimentary canal was for them only a cavity, the contained structures of which, albeit, to their mind often betrayed evidences of a “gouty diathesis.” They distinguished “gouty” teeth, “gouty” tonsillitis, “gouty” pharyngitis, even “gouty” parotitis; but all these they classed as tokens or sequelæ of gout, not possible causes or _excitants_ thereof. Now as to the true significance of these acute glandular affections held by clinicians of repute to be of “gouty” origin. What of “gouty” tonsillitis, pharyngitis, parotitis? Still more, what of our deductions regarding the relationship of these same when met with in association with _non-gouty_ forms of arthritis? Do we not hold them each and all as evidences of _infection_? and, we may well ask, why not in gout? The marvel then is that even to-day many still hold that the tonsillitis, pharyngitis, even the gingivitis, like the subsequent articular lesions, are one and all attributable to the underlying _gout_. We certainly should not do so in the case of any arthritis other than “gouty,” and to my mind the time is ripe for a change of attitude. The “gouty” throats, like the “gouty” teeth, should be regarded not as symptomatic of gout, but _etiologically_ related thereto. We should cease to talk of “gouty” throats, teeth, etc., should renounce the prefix, for there is nothing _specific_ of _gout_ either in the tonsillar, pharyngeal, or dental lesions. We should instead view these various local disorders in their true perspective as _foci_ of _infection, causally_ related to the subsequent and _secondary_ “gouty” arthritis. Similarly, when we come to analyse the component elements of an acute paroxysm of gout, how strongly indicative of the intrusion of an _infective_ element the following features: the onset, temperature curve, character of local articular changes of the disorder, the presence of _leucocytosis_, with secondary anæmia and enlargement of the lymphatic glands! Again, how suggestive the occasional complication of acute gout by _lymphangitis_ and _phlebitis_! Of like significance, too, the paroxysmal nature and periodicity of the disorder, and the compatibility of the morbid anatomical changes and the cytological content of the aspirated joint fluid with their genesis by _infection_.