Theses inaugurales et medicae de podagrica affectione

The affection which is called ἀρθρῖτις arthritis in Greek, and articular pain in Latin, in a general and wide sense, infests either all or most of the joints, and is properly endowed with the name of Arthritis by the ancients; or certainly it occupies the joints of some part, and according to their diversity, is named either χειραγρὰ cheiragra, gout in the hand, or ἰσχιὰς ischias, sciatica, or γοναγρὰ gonagra, gout in the knee, or ποδαγρὰ podagra, gout in the foot. We shall treat of the last species, yet in such a way that we wish what we are about to say concerning it to be understood of the rest, provided the condition of the individual parts is observed.

II.

Therefore, Podagra has the nature of both a disease and a symptom: of a disease, in so far as it is considered as a tumor of the parts pertaining to the joints of the feet, arising from an influx of matter.

III.

But [it has the nature] of a symptom in so far as it is taken for the painful sensation, especially a tensive one, of the sensible parts nearest to those joints, depending upon the said cause.

IV.

The subject [of the disease] are the locations of the said articulations, namely the recesses, the ligaments, and the membranes covering the bones, and the sensible parts adjacent to them.

V.

The cause, called συνεκτικὴ conjunctive/holding cause, is the matter, which, by its tension and quantity, molests the parts already mentioned.

VI.

According to the tenets of the ancients, this is sometimes blood, sometimes bile, more rarely melancholy, more frequently phlegm, or [it is] alone and aqueous, or serous and salty, or mixed with bilious humors, which, according to the reason of its substance and the inflowing humors, and also the habit of the whole body and the affected place,