Observations on the Pathology and Cure of Rheumatism

^ydenhahi was the first who favoured mankind with a distinct and accurate history of rheumatism. Before his time it seems to have been confounded with gout; since that period it has maintained its ground as an idiopathic disease, and has for long been as well understood as any other, the proximate cause of which can be matter of conjecture only. Concerning the proximate cause of rheumatism various opinions have been entertained. Dr Macbride and others imagine it to consist in a peculiar acrimony ; others in a lentor of