The ophthalmia from gout should be treated with the usual remedies for that disease when it arises from other causes, with the addition of such local applications to other and distant parts of the body, as may abstract the gouty action from the eyes.
Dull but constant pains in the limbs yield to frictions, volatile liniments, muslin and woollen worn next to the skin, electricity, a salivation, and the warm and cold bath. A gentleman who was afflicted with a pain of this kind for three years and a half in one of his arms, informed me, that he had been cured by wearing a woollen stocking that had been boiled with sulphur in water, for two weeks upon the affected limb. He had previously worn flannel upon it, but without receiving any benefit from it. I have known wool and cotton, finely carded, and made into small mats, worn upon the hips, when affected by gout, with great advantage. In obstinate sciatic pains, without fever or inflammation, Dr. Pitcairn's remedy, published by Dr. Cheyne, has performed many cures. It consists in taking from one to four tea-spoons full of the fine spirit of turpentine every morning, for a week or ten days, in three times the quantity of honey, and afterwards in drinking a large quantity of sack whey, to settle it on the stomach, and carry it into the blood. An anodyne should be taken every night after taking this medicine.
A gouty diarrhœa should be treated with the usual astringent medicines of the shops. Blisters to the wrists and ankles, also a salivation, have often cured it. I have heard of its being checked, after continuing for many years, by the patient eating large quantities of alspice, which he carried loose in his pocket for that purpose.
The angina pectoris, which I have said is a symptom of the gout, generally comes on with fulness and tension in the pulse. After these are reduced by two or three bleedings, mineral tonics seldom fail of giving relief.
Spasms in the stomach, and pains in the bowels, often seize gouty people in the midst of business or pleasure, or in the middle of the night. My constant prescription for these complaints is ten drops of laudanum every half hour, till relief be obtained. If this medicine be taken in the forming state of these pains, a single dose generally removes the disease. It is preferable to spiced wine and spirits, inasmuch as it acts quicker, and leaves no disposition to contract a love for it when it is not required to ease pain.
The pain in the rectum which has been described, yields to the common remedies for the piles. Cold water applied to the part, generally gives immediate relief.
For a preternatural secretion and excretion of bile, gentle laxatives, and abstinence from oily food, full meals, and all violent exercises of the body and mind, are proper.
The itching in the anus, which I have supposed to be a symptom of gout, has yielded in one instance that has come within my knowledge to mercurial ointment applied to the part affected. Dr. Lettsom recommends fomenting the part with a decoction of poppy heads and hemlock, and advises lenient purges and a vegetable diet as a radical cure for the disease[68].
For the itching in the vagina I have found a solution of the sugar of lead in water to be an excellent palliative application. Dr. Lettsom recommends as a cure for it, the use of bark in delicate habits, and occasional bleeding, with a light and moderate diet, if it occur about the time of the cessation of the menses.