Gout never assails the husbandman who unites temperance with his labours; but he is not exempted from rheumatism in any of its forms. Gout is the disorder of peculiar constitutions, and of the adult age; but rheumatism occurs at every period of life, and to all constitutions. On the assumption that gout is a _gastro-enterite_, with a developement of irritation in the joints, purgative medicines are prohibited, and the free application of leeches to the affected parts is recommended as the chief curative treatment. I admit that in some circumstances of the gouty paroxysm, the mucous digestive membrane is affected with inflammatory irritation, requiring suitable and peculiar treatment; but, as a general principle of practice, I confidently advocate the use of alteratives and purgatives, and, with only occasional exceptions, disapprove of the employment of leeches as a remedy for the local part of the disease. As in theory, so in practice, I believe that M. Broussais considers that rheumatism is to be viewed in the same light as the gout. M. Laennec employs general bleeding in acute rheumatism; leeches in the chronic; and tartar emetic in both forms of the disorder. An analytical examination of the points of doctrine and practice, which I have here briefly discussed, would lead me far beyond the limits which I have intended to observe in this Essay; but I could not overlook the most interesting novelty which has, for the last five years, engaged the French school of medicine. It is still a custom amongst the French physicians to employ _tisanes_, which are decoctions or infusions of roots, herbs, flowers, or grains, as medicinal remedies on which they seem to place considerable reliance. The “_formulaire pratique des Hôpitaux civils de Paris_” contains nearly ninety prescriptions of different kinds of tisane. With us, the Lisbon diet drink, or the simple decoction of sarsaparilla, is the only medicine which we direct to be taken in quantity as a drink. But even sarsaparilla is given with more advantage, in a state of concentration, by using the cortical part of the root, exclusively, in which the whole virtue seems to reside. I object to the general principle of using medicine in a state of large dilution. It is true that the French do not prescribe active substances in this form; but their fondness for these feeble agents, tends to establish inefficient and almost insignificant practice. Diluent drinks are useful adjuncts to medicine; but I should think that a very limited number of tisanes would comprise all that can be considered either as useful or agreeable.