The formation and excretion of uric acid : considered with reference to gout and allied diseases / by A. Haig.

  • Haig, Alexander, 1853-1924.
Date:
1888
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The formation and excretion of uric acid : considered with reference to gout and allied diseases / by A. Haig. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    observed to alternate with attacks of headache or epilepsy; and it is possible that there may be found every gradation of psychical abnormality from mere depression of spirits and bad temper up to melancholia and suidical, or other forms of mania produced by uric acid retention ; and I am able, as I have said, either to cause or cure several of the slighter forms by influencing uric acid excretion, so that I have hopes that the knowledge of causation thus gained, may lead to a more successful treatment and prevention of the more serious developments of the trouble. It may also be remarked that the diet which is useful in headache and in epilepsy is of use in some forms of insanity; see (T. S. Clouston on The Treatment of Insanity of Adolescence, PractitioJier,vo\. i, 1881, annotation on p. 221.) Dr. Broadbent in the Croonian Lectures, of 1887, makes some very interesting remarks on this subject. Thus, speaking of the pulse in melancholia, he says, An unbroken series of gradations may be traced from the irritability and depression of spirits attend- ing functional disorder of the liver up to complete melancholia with delusions ; and he further says that protracted high arterial tension is a very con- stant symptom of these cases, and he goes on to say if it (high tension) is not itself the cause it is, at least, the index of the condition of the state of system on which the mental condition depends. It would be hard to find any observations of greater interest from my point of view, for I have for a long time believed that a high tension pulse, in the absence of other obvious causes for it, may be a sign of excess of uric acid in the blood. Such a pulse is very often seen in the uric acid headache, and the tension is generally greater than usual at the time of the headache; when, as we have seen, there is reason