Page:Of the Gout - Stukeley - 1734.djvu/47

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Hippocrates makes the causes of the gout a flatus or spirit, ἀνεμία he calls it, II. epidem. § 5. and its quick and sensible transitions show plainly 'tis as a subtle aura which passes thro' the whole habit of the body. And that aura as Ten Rhyne says p. 33. de arthrit. is maligna, perniciosa ac quasi venenata. Pareus says 'tis αρρητον, a thing of an incomprehensible nature, no more known than that of the plague, epilepsy, lues venerea. XVII. 2. he makes it subtle and virulent. Cardan makes the cause of the gout to be a spirit. Senertus a sharp, salt, subtle humour, a salt spirit. And when they burn with moxa, a flatus is perceiv'd to hiss out of the wound. If they keep it open like an issue, a thin ichor exsudes, fiery, malignant and very fetid. Platerus ''de observat. propr. says he has observ'd long sinus'''s and wormhole-like corrosions in the muscles of those that die of this distemper. Sometimes it appears on a sudden, like a florid boil in the face or any other part, sore and fiery beyond expression, and in all respects like a plague-boil. This being burnt with moxa, or dextrously let out, gives a speedy cure. Parry relates such a story of the a Lady at Bordeaux, Bushoff of a man at Wratislaw; and I have seen the case more than once. Tulpius in his observations, L. IV. 2. tells a story, that the Rh