NERVOUS DISORDERS. 6s 5
end of the fécond year, he had rather lefs of this difeafe ; but after
he had continued drinking the Mme-water conflantly for near three
years, he was feized with a fevere and long*continued fit of the
gout in both his hands and both his feet. This patient cbferved,
that the lime-water, when drunk warm, mended the Rate of his
flomach, when it was difordered before the coming on of a fit of
the gout, and he thought it had a good effedl in driving this difeafe
to the extremities. The lime-water agreed perfectly well with him,
and mended his appetite.
From this cafe it may be fairly concluded, that lime-water does
not radically cure the gout, or deflroy the arthritic matter in the
blood, although, by {lengthening the flomach and inteflines and
preventing acidity in them, it may render the attacks of this
difeafe lefs frequent, and in fome perfons, perhaps, lefs fevere
When lime-water is drunk for the cure of nervous complaints
from an imperfedl gout, it ought to be taken to the quantity of
at leafl an Englifh quart daily; as, at firfl, it is fometimes apt to
occafion an uneafy heat in the flomach, a little fweet milk may be
%
added to it ; but afterwards it is better to drink it alone. In the
winter-feafon, and when the flomach is more difordered than
ufual, the lime-water ought to be drunk nearly blood-warm.
Soap has been propofed by the late Doélor John Clerk, a phy-
fician of diflinguifhed charaéler in this place, as the proper folvent
of the arthritic matter in the blood f. It has fometimes been of ufe
in old rheumatifms, and may be properly taken along with the
lime-water, as it prevents coflivenefs and deflroys acidities in the
flomach and bowels.
As
s
* It may be proper to mention, that a patient of Dr Clerk’s, phyfician to the Royal Infir¬
mary here, who ufed to have a fevere and long-continued fit of the gout once in two years,
has been kept free from this difeafe for near three years part, by drinking off, at once, an
Englilh quart of lime-water, every forenoon about eleven o’clock. The lime-water taken in
this way, always purges him twice, or thrice about three o’clock in the afternoon. But as this
perfon is of a very full habit of body, it is probable that the lime-water has proved ufeful
to him, rather by that daily evacuation which it occafions by ftool, than by any virtue it
pofieffes of deftroying the arthritic matter in the blood.
f Se Dr Pringle’s Obfervat, on the difeafes of the army, part 3. chap, 2. edit, 1.