=Uricacidæmia and Gout.= Now, why do I speak with respect of de Mussy's theory of gout as a cause of hay fever and so disrespectfully of the uric acid doctrine? Are not gout and uric acid poisoning the same thing? No. They are not; though the two ideas are usually confused by medical men since Garrod's time and his demonstration of the increase and decrease of uric acid in the blood of gouty patients. Gout is something more than a simple accumulation of uric acid in the blood because of its imperfect elimination by the kidneys. What that something is, we do not know; but gout is, at least, a clinical entity, a definite group of symptoms known since Hippocrates' time. Take away the uric acid theory and you still have the disease, gout, that any of us can recognize, as the Greeks and Romans recognized it when the word uric acid was unknown. It is on these symptoms of gout, the clinical picture of disease, not on any hypothetical uric acid, that de Mussy based his theory and thus far he is on solid ground. On the other hand, _uric acid poisoning_ is largely a figment of the imagination. Take away the uric acid, which has never been satisfactorily proved to be there, and there is nothing left. In not one one-hundredth part of the cases of so-called uric acid poisoning is it proved that uric acid has anything to do with the case. =The Deposits of Uric Acid in Gout.= The deposit of uric acid in the form of urates in the gouty joint has always been a strong argument for the theory that gout, at least, is due to an excess of uric acid (urates) in the blood. At one time, in a humble way, I was a pathologist, and this theory of a blood overloaded with uric acid as the only thinkable cause of its deposition in the joints never impressed me as pathologically sound. I often compared these deposits of urates in the joints with the deposits of lime salts so often found at autopsies in caseous glands or small necrotic areas. The superficial observer says: