It may fairly be concluded from hence, that Milk is not proper Food in acid Constitutions; for if Milk, upon the Mixture of Acids, turn into Curds and Whey, it is reasonable to expect, that if it be taken by Persons whose Bodies abound with Acids, it shall be separated into a thin serous Fluid, and a strong Coagulum; which turning grumous, may cause Obstructions in the Viscera, while it ceases to be mixed and diluted with the Serum, which instead of performing that Office, may go off in the Discharges of the Skin, or of Urine, leaving the Body pale, faint and weak; and hence may arise many chronical Distempers, foreign to our Purpose to enumerate.
The Change of Colour in Milk, by Alkalies, from White to Red, gives a very evident Reason for the easy Transmutation of the Chyle into Blood, when it leaves its vegetable Nature, and puts on an Animal one; and is a further Confirmation of the Doctrine hitherto laid down. The Appearances that are observable in the Changes Milk undergoes, when left to itself, instruct us in the Choice of such kind as is most proper for Nourishment; which is principally to be regarded, where the Animal is entirely fed with Milk, which is the Case of Children at the Breast; and what happens to Children, may with proper Allowances be applied to older Bodies. If a Nurse feed entirely upon Flesh Meats, Fish, and Broths, or be hot and feverish, or use much or violent Exercise, some of which often happen to be the Case in wealthy Families, the Milk grows Yellowish, and by standing will turn rancid, the Child manifests an Aversion to it, and becomes hot, red, and feverish; on the contrary, if the Nurses Food be too much enclined to Acidity, which is often the Case of poor People, the Child shall be subject to Flatulencies, preternatural Distention of the Body, and paleness of the Flesh: The Milk for Food ought to be perfectly white and clear, the Animal that gives it, not suffered to fast long before, and used for Food as soon as possible after it is milked; for thus it is had in its most perfect and natural State.
Before I leave the History of Diet, I cannot but take Notice, that as much Irregularity is committed in the Quantity, and Time of taking our Food, as in the Qualities or Properties thereof. From what hath been said it appears, that true Nutrition consists in the proper Assimilation of the Food to the Vegetable, or animal Body that takes it in; if the Powers of the Body be sufficient to assimilate what it takes in in a proper Manner, and to throw forth what it doth not need, or what is unfit for Assimilation, let the Food be what it will, the Body will be well nourished; on the contrary, if what be taken in be too strong to be changed by the digestive Powers, or the Powers of the Body too weak to expell it, that Body must be changed to a bad Habit; which, in its utmost Degree, is the Case of Plants and Animals that are poisoned. If the Body be oppressed with Loads of the most proper Food, more than the digestive Powers are able to deal with, or than there are animal juices sufficient to mix with for the proper Assimilation; those Powers must be weakened, the Fibres, being stretched beyond their Tone, lose of their Force, and what Foods are taken in, not being sufficiently acted upon by the Solids or Fluids of the Body, take the Course they would naturally have done out of the Body, and turn to Corruption, and Humour. When this happens to be the Case in human Bodies, upon a Stoppage of any of the great Discharges, as of Perspiration, by taking Cold, they become Subject to Fevers, and other acute Diseases, and Obstructions of the tender Bowels, chiefly the Liver and Lungs, which bring on several chronical Diseases, more especially the Dropsy and Asthma; for it is observable, that all overfed Animals have large Livers subject to Putrefaction, and are short winded.
I know no exact Way of determining the Quantities of our Food, and of the Changes inducible upon the Body, by the Quantities only, (before Pain and Sickness teach the Exceeding, when perhaps it may be past Remedy) but the Balance, and yet a Man would run the Hazard of being turned into Ridicule, that should gravely talk to People of weighing their Food or their Bodies, at certain Times. The cravings of Nature, and the returns of Appetite are thought to be better Indications for a supply, than the Weight of the Body, and so indeed they would be, if left to themselves; but we eat without Hunger, drink without Thirst, and lie a bed at times unnatural to sleep. I need not add that these are the People that want most the Helps of Medicine. The Quantities of Food, and the unnatural Encrease of the Body may be attended to, without running into ridiculous Extreams of nicety; and after the Rules are once settled, these things may be known without living in a Pair of Scales with Sanctorius. I can affirm it from certain Experience, that the keeping the Body to a certain standard of Weight, is a great preservative of Health; and many acute, and chronical Diseases may be foreseen, and prevented by it, and this is known by weighing once or twice a Month with less trouble than paring ones Nails, and regulating the Quantity of Food accordingly; so true is the Aphorism of Sanctorius, that if such Kinds, and such Quantities, be daily added to the Body as go off, and the Exceedings discharged, lost Health will be recovered, and present Health preserved.
Among the chronical Distempers, which owe their Origine to irregularities in Diet, the Gout is neither the least considerable nor frequent; though perhaps the best and least dangerous Way of clearing the Blood of the morbid Matter; for it naturally tends to the Extreams, and is generally so great a Tyrant, that it will suffer no other Distemper to rage but itself; upon this Account it is that People wish for, and are complimented upon the Gout, as an Indication of the vital Powers being in such Strength and Vigour, as to drive forth the gouty Matter; and it is no wonder that Persons should wish such active, fiery Particles, as the gouty Matter seems to consist of, fixed to a certain Joint, and expelled the Body, when they are floating through the Mass of Juices, and disorder the whole Machine, which is often the Case of gouty Persons before it fixes: The gouty Salts (if they be Salts, as most probably they are) appear to be active, sharp, pungent, fiery Principles, and when, by the Force and Heat of the Body, they are brought into Action, are not improperly termed concentrated Fire it self; and indeed the Effects of their Action manifest something not very different therefrom, by calcining the animal Substance into Chalk or Lime, or somewhat approaching thereto, in the Knots of gouty Joints: Their Volatility may Occasion their being more easily brought into a State of Action, but at the same Time makes their Expulsion out of the Body quicker and easier. A fit of the Gout is no other than an attempt of Nature to collect and expell these Salts out of the Body, which, if successfully performed, leaves the Person free from the Gout, till such Time as from the natural Course of the Food, or other Causes, the Blood and Juices become again overcharged with gouty Matter, to such Degree, that Nature attempts the same Way of Relief it before experienced, and occasions another Fit.
From this Account it appears, that if any thing be to be done during the Time of a Fit, which is the Season many Persons very preposterously attend a Cure, it can only be by supporting the Powers of the Body, to enable Nature, to go on with its Work: (For it must be considered, that the Symptoms of Pain arise from the Action of the Body in that Work, as well as from the Action of the gouty Salts;) and by promoting the natural Discharges from the Part affected, by gentle heat and Warmth; all external Applications, foreign to these Ends, are useless, and generally speaking dangerous. Indeed if any thing may safely be applied in this Case, for these Ends, some Preparation of the Poppy seems to me to be the most promising, and least hazardous. This Plant is endowed with Powers that soften and attenuate in a great Degree, gently promote and encrease the Motion of the Juices, and occasion in Bodies properly disposed, as great, if not greater Discharges by the Skin, than any other Medicine yet discovered. If we add to this its particular Property of easing Pain, may we not justly form great Expectations from it? Its Virtues given inwardly, in the Case we are speaking of, have been long known and experienced; its outward Application hath not, that I know of, been mentioned before; and I would be understood now rather to mention it, than recommend it. I have tried it in about half a Dozen Persons, the better half of which found immediate and wonderful Relief from it, and those who did not, found no inconvenience, to my thinking, chargeable upon the Medicine; though perhaps I am fond enough, like other Patrons of new Tryals, to impute the want of Success to other Causes, than to a Deficiency in the Medicine; I only mention the thing, not being thoroughly satisfied about it, for want of sufficient Tryal. But thus far I may venture to assert, that this, or any other external Applications, are neither to be unwarily or unskilfully ventured upon.
Some Authors of good Note have recommended purging the Bowels upon the Recess of the Gout, and during the Intervals of the Fit, as a proper preventive Cure in the Gout. That keeping the alimentary Passages clean, and in good Order, is of Use not only in the Gout, but in several other Distempers, is undoubtedly true; but how far this may be attended with a weakening of the Fibres of the Stomach, and how far the gouty Salts, already lodged in the Blood and Juices, may be drawn into these Parts, so as to act thereon, deserves very well to be considered. The Tendency of Nature is to drive the gouty Humour to the Extreams, and expell it forth of the Body; the Tendency of purging by the Bowels, further than cleansing the first Passages, is to draw the gouty Humour thither, and expell it by Siege. The Consonancy of these Tendencies may be seen without any Witchcraft; but a very accurate Judgment is necessary to distinguish at what Time, or in what Degree, the Juices of the Body are impregnated with the gouty Matter, so as to determine upon purging with Safety, or what Progress they have made in their Collection, and Tendency to the Joints, to venture to disturb Nature, in her own way of discharging them. Purging during the Time of a Fit is always avoided even by the Patrons of habitual gentle Purging out of it, and a Looseness is esteemed a very dangerous Symptom at that Time; sure I am from Experience, that many gouty Persons, who have run into the Practice of habitual Purging, even with those Medicines that are most strengthning, have found very bad Effects from that Custom, have been afterwards less able to withstand the Attacks of the Gout, have had more frequent and longer Returns, have at length sooner sunk under it, and fallen into worse Habits of Body, than others who have avoided that Practice: There may no doubt be a Necessity for the Use of evacuating Medicines, but they are always to be exhibited upon the maturest Consideration, and the best Advice. People that take up such Practices upon their own Opinions, will in the End find cause to repent it.
The best Way of curing the Gout, (if it may be allowed that Name) is to prevent it, that is, to hinder the Generation of this gouty Humour in the Body; this is to be effected no other way, that I know of, but by Diet: While the digestive Powers of the Body are in such full Strength and Vigour, as perfectly to assimilate the Food into its own Substance, and they be not oppressed with greater Loads than they are able to manage, the Choice of particular kinds of Diet will be of little Consequence; but these are always defective in gouty Persons, and these Defects are productive of different Habits in different Constitutions, which must be attended to in Rules for Diet in general, as well as in the Gout. Long Habits are not suddenly changeable with Safety; and after the Ætas vergens, the human Body doth not freely admit of Changes. A Body always supported in an high Manner, with Flesh Meats, and Wine, will not well bear a sudden Change to a low Diet; and on the contrary, a Body fed upon Water and Vegetables, will not well bear a sudden Change to an high Diet; sudden Repletions or Evacuation is dangerous, and therefore Celsus well advises, Nullum cibi genus fugere, quo populus utatur, interdum in convictu esse, interdum ab eo se retrahere; modo plus justo, modo non amplius assumere, but this is to be understood of People in Health.
Milk seems to be the best Medium of Diet, and yet from what was before said of it, there must be many gouty Constitutions it will not agree with; the same may be said of Turneps, which have been in their Day reckoned Specifick to the Gout as well as Milk; and the Truth is, that many Persons have suffered irreparable Damage, and some lost their Lives, by attempting particular Diets in improper Habits of Body. It is utterly disagreeable either to Reason or Experience, to fix any one general Rule of Diet that shall agree with all Constitutions, or even all gouty Constitutions. The particular Constitutions of gouty Persons are hardly reducible to general Rules, and nothing but Observations, and accurate Judgment, can determine upon them so as to direct a proper Diet. Lewis Cornaro, who is one of the strongest Instances of the force of Diet, in the little Account he hath published, tells us that he found several Particularities in his own Constitution, which his Physicians could no way satisfy him in. One Instance is much to our purpose, old Wine disagreed so much with him, that in the Months of July and August, in his later Years, he was forced to abstain altogether from Wine, this generally brought him to Death’s Door every Year with perfect Weakness; for though he had been gouty, and cured of it by Diet, he never refrained from Flesh Meat or Wine in some small Quantities, nor could he relish or digest his Food without Wine: So soon as the Grapes began to turn, even before they were full Ripe, he had Wine pressed out for himself, whence he was wonderfully restored, in two or three Days, to the Admiration of his Physicians, who could not conceive, that new Wine, before thorough Defæcation, should have so good an Effect. Cornaro describes himself, and his own Diet very honestly; but when he comes to give Rules for others, leaves the Kinds of Food to its Agreement or Disagreement to every particular Constitution; and concludes with this Maxim, which is undoubtedly true with Regard to Diet in general, That for such Persons, to whom no kind of Food is offensive, the Regulation of the Quantity, and not the Quality of the Food is principally to be attended to; in which this Rule is always to be strictly observed, that no greater Quantity even of the most proper Food, be taken at a Time, than the Stomach is very well able to digest.
Having premised thus much about the Regard to be had to particular Constitutions, in ascertaining a Diet in the Gout, we may very well enquire, what Diet is most proper to prevent the Collection of gouty Salts in the Juices of the Body? From what hath been already said, and from pretty certain Experience, we may conclude this to be the Milk of an healthy young Animal, fed upon Vegetables; the next eligible is a vegetable Diet; and if animal Diet be absolutely Necessary, (as no doubt, some Part of it may be to many Constitutions) the Flesh of such Animals, as feed upon Vegetables, is preferable to such as feed upon other Animals. I prefer Wines to vegetable Diet, because all fermented Liquors are produced from Vegetables; of these the softest and smoothest are always to be preferred to the harder and rougher, though none should be used farther than as an help to Digestion; for Water is the Drink proper to all Animals. To assign Reasons for these Assertions would be only to repeat what I have said before; for if that be true, these evidently follow from it.