Th'Infernal Gout-
Gout is an extremely unpleasant disease, usually manifesting itself in the large joint of the big toe and causing agony to the sufferer. Too much uric acid in the blood causes urates (spiky little crystals of difficult-to-dislodge poison) to accumulate in the joints and mimics a painful arthritic attack. Over time, it can lead to large swellings on the joints which then break through the skin.
Uric acid is a byproduct of purine breakdown. Certain foods, such a lobster, crab, foie gras, champagne and port contain high levels of purine, leading gout to be termed the 'Rich Man's Disease'. Thomas Sydenham, the gifted doctor who introduced a holistic approach to English medicine recorded in his papers in 1683 that:
Gouty patients are, generally, either old men, or men who have so worn themselves out in youth as to have brought on a premature old age - of such dissolute habits none being more common than the premature and excessive indulgence in venery, and the like exhausting passions.
Of course, many other, more complex conditions were diagnosed as 'the gout'. The light diet and abstention from alcohol prescribed by Sydenham and his like-minded colleagues would have helped, but once got, gout is difficult to get rid of. Queen Anne, Isaac Newton and many others are famous sufferers. Samuel Johnson is also have thought to have suffered from gout, but let's be honest, there wasn't anything he didn't suffer from and it could have been any one of many underlying diseases, or simply degenerative arthritis. Gout is also a side effect of kidney failure and/or liver disease. It was likely that many deaths attributed to gout, including that of John Milton (8th Movember, 1674) were actually result of renal failure, with gout as the most obvious symptom. Dropsy, or grotesque swelling of the body, often accompanied gout-like pain.
All fortified wine was known to exacerbate gout, although there is always an opportunist ready to market their wares as 'medicinal'. One wine merchant sent a bottle of sherry to arch-snob Lord Chesterfield, with a note extolling the ability of his wine to 'cure the gout'. Lord Chesterfield, sharp as ever, replied:
Sir, I have tried your sherry and frankly prefer the gout.
