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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    in the blood. There are several striking facts which point more or less strongly in this direction; thus it will be obvious that a large part of the general statement I have just made with regard to food and drugs in gout will apply also to rheumatism, for the value and importance in both diseases of salicylates, alkalies and a meatless diet are matters of common observation. The important action of excess in beer and meat, and of excessive labour or ex- posure to weather in causation, are pointed out in the recent Collective Investigation Report on Rheumatic Fever ;^ and I have already gone into the mode in whicli some of these factors bring about retention of uric acid. With regard to excessive bodily labour, it is obvious that something quite out of the usual course is here meant, and that this is a very different matter from sufficient bodily exercise well within the power of the individual, which I have discussed in relation to gout. The reason why the same poison (uric acid) in the blood produces in one person gout, in another rheu- matism, in a third headache or hypochondriasis, in a fourth epilepsy or mania, is no doubt to be found to some extent in the amonnt of uric acid that has been accumulated, and the length of time during which it is in excess in the blood; but beyond uric acid itself and the conditions affecting its excretion, there are no doubt many factors of formation or function peculiar to each individual, as differences in vessel and nerve distribution, or in formation, growth and nutrition of these and other structures, either inherited or acquired, which determine the point on which the poison shall act most quickly and most forcibly, and so to some extent the effects it produces. Thus, one patient may suffer early in ' British Medical Journal, vol. i, i8S8, p. 3S7, ct scq.