The sooner a patient exercises his lower limbs by walking, after a fit of the gout, the better. "I made it a constant rule (says Mr. Small) to walk abroad as soon as the inflammatory state of the gout was past, and though by so doing, I often suffered great pain, I am well convinced that the free use I now enjoy of my limbs is chiefly owing to my determined perseverance in the use of that exercise; nor am I less persuaded that nine in ten of gouty cripples owe their lameness more to indolence, and fear of pain, than to the genuine effects of the gout[65]." Sir William Temple confirms the propriety of Mr. Small's opinion and practice, by an account of an old man who obviated a fit of the gout as often as he felt it coming in his feet, by walking in the open air, and afterwards by going into a warm bed, and having the parts well rubbed where the pain began. "By following this course (he says) he was never laid up with the gout, and before his death recommended the same course to his son if ever he should fall into that accident." Under a conviction of the safety of this practice the same author concludes the history of his own case in the following words: "I favoured it [viz. the swelling in my feet] all this while more than I needed, upon the common opinion, that walking too much might draw down the humour, which I have since had reason to conclude is a great mistake, and that if I had walked as much as I could from the first day the pain left me, the swelling might have left me too in a much less time[66]." [65] Medical Observations and Inquiries, vol. vi. p. 220. [66] Essay upon the Cure of the Gout by Moxa, vol. i. folio edition, p. 143 and 141. III. I come now to mention the remedies which are proper in that state of the gout in which a _feeble_ morbid action takes place in the blood-vessels and viscera. I shall begin this head, by remarking, that this state of the gout is often created, like the typhus state of fever, by the neglect, or too scanty use of evacuations in its first stage. When the prejudices which now prevent the adoption of those remedies in their proper time, are removed, we shall hear but little of the low state of the arthritic fever, nor of the numerous diseases from obstruction which are produced by the blood-vessels disorganizing the viscera, by repeated and violent attacks of the disease. To determine the character of a paroxysm of gout and the remedies proper to relieve it, the climate, the season of the year, the constitution of the atmosphere, and the nature of the prevailing epidemic, should be carefully attended to by a physician. But his principal dependence should be placed upon the state of the pulse. If it do not discover the marks which indicate bleeding formerly referred to, but is weak, quick, and soft, the remedies should be such as are calculated to produce a more vigorous, and equable action in the blood-vessels and viscera. They are,