have been spoil'd by former fitts, and that there is the seat of the distemper.
Should I go about to recite the medicins that have been try'd inwardly, for cure of the gout, many volumes would not contain them. Nor can one out of the infinite number be selected, that will contribute towards it. 'Tis no new thing to use external applications herein. They too have been innumerable. Camphorated spirits of wine, oyl of turpentine, oyl of amber, foments, heated bricks, blisters, oylskin. At other times cold baths, cabbage leaves, and the contrary regimen with a thousand more inventions have been try'd. Frequently they repell the malady from one joint to another, which is doing nothing: sometimes to the noble parts, with danger or death. Seldom we hear of any succeeding, or that but by accident: and none, that I know of, so constantly and uniformly as our oyls. The common intention in many fancyed remedys, is to sweat the part, and make the humor perspire outwardly, as they imagine. And this indeed is the most frequent solution of those that have discours'd in conversation, upon the operation of the oyls. But we do not find that this can well be performed: nor in the general usage of wrapping the part up in flannels, can we discern any sighs of sweating, nor
