Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 59.djvu/278

268 and occasionally insane. As a group, they are certainly very unlike the group of eminent consumptives. These latter, with their febrile activities, their restless versatility, their quick sensitiveness to impressions, often appear the very type of genius, but it is a somewhat feminine order of genius. The genius of the gouty group is emphatically masculine, profoundly original; these men show a massive and patient energy which proceeds not only without rest,' but without haste,' until it has dominated its task and solved its problem.

This association of genius and gout cannot be a fortuitous coincidence. The secret of the association probably lies in the special pathological peculiarities of gout. It is liable to occur in robust, well-nourished individuals. It acts in such a way that the poison is sometimes in the blood, and sometimes in the joints. Thus not only is the poison itself probably an irritant and stimulant to the nervous system, but even its fluctuations may be mentally beneficial. 'When it is in the victim's blood his brain becomes abnormally overclouded; when it is in his joints his mind becomes abnormally clear and vigorous. There is thus a well-marked mental periodicity; the man liable to attacks of gout is able to view the world from two entirely different points of view; he has, as it were, two brains at his disposal; in the transition from one state to another he is constantly receiving new inspirations, and constantly forced to gloomy and severe self-criticism. His mind thus attains a greater mental vigor and acuteness than the more equable mind of the non-gouty subject, though the latter is doubtless much more useful for the ordinary purposes of life.

It must not be supposed that in thus stating a connection between gout and genius it is thereby assumed that the latter is in any sense a product of the former. All the uric acid in the world will never suffice of itself to produce genius, and it is easy enough to find severe gout in individuals who are neither rich nor wise, but merely hard-working manual laborers of the most ordinary intelligence. It may well be, however, that, given a highly endowed and robust organism, the gouty poison acts as a real stimulus to intellectual energy and a real aid to intellectual achievement. Gout is thus merely one of perhaps many exciting causes acting on a fundamental predisposition. If the man of genius is all the better for a slight ferment of disease, we must not forget that if he is to accomplish much hard work he also requires a robust constitution.

It may be added that the other diseases of the uric acid group are common among our men of genius. Rheumatism, indeed, is not mentioned a very large number of times, considering its prevalence among the ordinary population. But stone, and closely allied conditions, are mentioned seventeen times (five times in association with gout), and as we may be quite sure that this is a very decided underestimate, we must certainly conclude that the condition has been remarkably common.