The contest among medical men for the most proper mode of curing this
complaint cannot but produce a smile, when we recollect that the
afflicted have recourse to various and opposite remedies with success.
We have heard of a man who would find his pains alleviated by drinking a
wineglass full of verjuice, while a table-spoonful of wine would torture
him almost to distraction.
There were two counsellors, some years ago, who generally cured
themselves in a very pleasant manner; one, who was accustomed to drink
water constantly, would cure himself by drinking wine; and the other,
who invariably took his bottle or more of wine a day, was constantly
cured by the use of water.
Others, by living on a milk diet only, have entirely cured themselves.
Some years ago there was a man in Italy who was particularly successful
in the cure of the gout: his mode was to make his patients sweat
profusely, by obliging them to go up and down stairs, though with much
pain to themselves.
A quack in France acquired great reputation for the cure of this malady,
by the use of a medicine he called “Tincture of the Moon,” of which he
administered some drops every morning in a basin of broth. It was never
used by any but the richest persons; for the price of a bottle full, not
larger than a common sized smelling bottle, was eighty louis d’ors.
Furetière mentions this quack, and says he possessed many valuable
secrets. He adds, that the surprising cures, to which he was witness, by
the “Tincture of the Moon,” astonished all the faculty at Paris. The
operation of this medicine was insensible.
* * * * *
~Stories~