It is on this organ, that the hurtful powers have produced their greatest effect; for to it they are immediately applied. It is by no means surprising, that the constant application of highly seasoned foods, with fermented and spirituous liquors, should at last wear out the vital principle of this organ. Indeed it is often so far exhausted, that the most terrible cramps and convulsions take place, which would soon end in its total extinction, unless it were roused to somewhat like a proper action by the most powerful stimulants. Still, however, their effect is but temporary. With respect to a regular fit, after the inflammation of the extremities has been subdued by the means I have mentioned, a generous, but not full diet should be used. A person who has been for a long time accustomed to wine, cannot easily be deprived of it at once; but he should drink Madeira, and those wines, which neither contain much carbonic acid, nor deposite much tartar. His food should be of the plainest kind, and generally boiled, instead of roast. The great thing is to keep the spirits and excitement rather under par, but not to let the patient sink too low. In this way, the exhausted excitability will gradually accumulate, and the healthy state be reestablished. When this is once effected, the gout may be prevented in future with the greatest certainty, if the patient will have resolution. The whole secret consists in abstaining, in toto, from alcohol, in every form, however disguised, or however diluted. He must not take it, either in the form of liqueurs, cordials, wine, or even small beer. I believe there never was an instance of a person having the gout, who totally abstained from every form of alcohol, however he might live in other respects: and I doubt very much, if ever the gout returned after a person had abstained from fermented or spirituous liquors for two years. Temperance in eating, and exercise, are, no doubt, powerful auxiliaries, and tend very much to promote health; but still they will not secure a person from a return of the gout, without this precaution. There seems something in alcohol, which peculiarly brings on this state of the constitution, and without it, it would seem that gout could not be produced. Here then is an effectual method of curing the gout, which will no more return, if this method be strictly persevered in, than the smallpox will attack the constitution after inoculation.