On rheumatism, rheumatic gout, and sciatica : their pathology, symptoms, and treatment / by Henry William Fuller.

  • Fuller, Henry William, 1820-1873.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On rheumatism, rheumatic gout, and sciatica : their pathology, symptoms, and treatment / by Henry William Fuller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/494 (page 28)
    that anything which disturbs the general health, and gives rise to a state of impaired assimilation, becomes, under certain circumstances, a predisposing cause of rheumatism.' The only way, therefore, of preventing or counteracting it, is by noting the earliest symptoms of local disturbance, and taking active measures to prevent its continuance, by carefully attending to the general health, and lastly, as the skin is the peculiar emunctory of the poison, by promoting free cutaneous action. The exciting causes of the disease are extremely nume- rous, but not being peculiar to rheumatism, they hardly call for comment or observation. Suffice it to say that when the rheumatic poison is present in the system, any disturb- ing circumstance, even of temporary duration, such as over fatigue, anxiety, grief, or anger, by rendering the system more susceptible of its influence, may prove the accidental or exciting cause of the disease, and that exposure to cold or to atmospheric vicissitudes is almost certain to induce an attack. The more the history of rheumatism is studied, the more closely and carefully its details are examined, the more obvious does it become that the disease does not result 1 I am glad to quote, in confirmation of my opinion, some ad- mirable remarks by Dr. Taylor, of Huddersfield. I belieye, he says, the really eflBcient cause, to be such a change in the constitution of the body, chiefly, perhaps, of the fluids, as is more or less slowly in- duced, under the influence of circumstances unfavorable to health, but often operating imperceptibly, and discovered only by very careful in- vestigation ; I allude more particularly to improprieties, not necessarily gross ones, in diet, clothing, or labour, and to undue habitual exposure to cold or damp, or anxiety of mind, as well as to other agencies which gradually undermine the health. (' Med.-Chir. Trans.,' vol. xxviii, pp. -162-3.)