7. _Abstinence from wine, spirits, and malt liquors_, also from such aliments as afford much nourishment or stimulus, should be carefully enjoined. Sago, panada, tapioca, diluted milk with bread, and the pulp of apples, summer fruits, tea, coffee, weak chocolate, and bread soaked in chicken water or beef tea, should constitute the principal diet of patients in this state of the gout. 8. _Blisters_ are an invaluable remedy in this disease, when used at a proper time, that is, after the reduction of the morbid actions in the system by evacuations. They should be applied to the joints of the feet and wrists in general gout, and to the neck and sides, when it attacks the head or breast. A strangury from the gout is no objection to their use. So far from increasing this complaint, Dr. Clark and Dr. Whytt inform us, that they remove it[63]. But the principal advantage of blisters is derived from their collecting and concentrating scattered and painful sensations, and conveying them out of the system, and thus becoming excellent substitutes for a tedious fit of the gout. [63] Physical and Literary Essays, vol. III. p. 469. 9. _Fear_ and _terror_ have in some instances cured a paroxysm of this disease. A captain of a British ship of war, who had been confined for several weeks to his cabin, by a severe fit of the gout in his feet, was suddenly cured by hearing the cry of fire on board his ship. This fact was communicated to me by a gentleman who was a witness of it. Many similar cases are upon record in books of medicine. I shall in another place insert an account of one in which the cure effected by a fright, eradicated the disease from the system so completely, as ever afterwards to prevent its return. Thus have I enumerated the remedies which are proper in the gout when it affects the blood-vessels and viscera with great morbid action. Most of those remedies are alike proper when the morbid actions are seated in the muscular fibres, whether of the bowels or limbs, and whether they produce local pain, or general convulsion, provided they are of a violent nature. There are some remedies under this head of a doubtful nature, on which I shall make a few observations. _Sweating_ has been recommended in this state of the gout. All the objections to it in preference to other modes of depletion, mentioned in another place[64], apply against its use in the inflammatory state of the gout. It is not only less safe than bleeding, purging, and abstinence, but it is often an impracticable remedy. The only sudorific medicine to be trusted in this state of the disease is the Seneka snake-root. It promotes all the secretions and excretions, and exerts but a feeble stimulus upon the arterial system. [64] Defence of Blood-letting.