1992/04/01 by Kevin J. Fraser · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Medicine · #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #Computer science #Action (physics) #Gout #Data science #World Wide Web #Medicine #Internal medicine
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0025727300054995
openalex publication_date 1992/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Gout was an ubiquitous disease in Georgian England.Although its victims were often immobilized at home for weeks on end, it was not, however, entirely unwelcome.Predominately a male disease, because of its frequency in the corridors of power and association with extravagant lifestyles, it was perceived as socially desirable.Moreover, there was the belief that the gouty were protected from more lifethreatening disorders such as palsy, dropsy or apoplexy.Physicians were therefore often reluctant to treat attacks of acute gout.Such therapeutic nihilism was convenient as gout had been considered the opprobrium medicorum since ancient times and many were prepared to suffer their attacks obediently.Others continued to search for a cure, looking beyond a disturbance of the four bodily humours for the cause of the disease.Pamphleteers fed the huge public appetite for such information, and the diaries and letters of the period contain frequent references to gout.However, these accounts often leave some uncertainty about the diagnosis, as most other forms of arthritis were yet to be distinguished from gout.William Stukeley's descriptions of his own gout are, therefore, of particular importance, for they leave no doubt about the diagnosis.'Not only do they provide