‘Multæ formæ infortunatorum,
Meditatio pœnæ, et consuetudo,
Podagros miseros consolentur.’
Lucian.
are destroyed, and the physical powers either insensibly undermined or suddenly crushed by an attack of paralysis or apoplexy, should hardly be reckoned among the misfortunes attending the disease.”
But for our encouragement it may be observed that not always does gout carry with it such a terrible Nemesis. “Gout is the disease of those who will have it,” said a wise physician, and though the inbred gouty tendency may be so strong as to cast defiance at abstinence, yet it is by no means always so. A man may inherit gout, but he need not foster it by self-indulgence. Much less need he, as so often happens, acquire it by depraved habits of life. In no disease do sobriety and virtuous living ensure so great a reward. As Sir Thomas Watson long since said to those inheriting this unwelcome legacy: “Let the son of a rich and gouty nobleman change places with the son of a farm servant, and earn his temperate meal by the daily sweat of his brow, and the chance of his being visited with gout will be very small.”
“O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint
Agricolas!”
Georg., ii., 458.