The first medical monograph on the gout.

The historical library of the Heberden Society' has recently been fortunate enough to acquire what we believe to be the earliest printed medical monograph on Gout: it was published in Germany. This treatise, dated 1534, was written by Dominicus Burgauer, a physician. The slim quarto volume, printed in Strasbourg by Mathias Apiarius, has eleven leaves. Its title: 'Ob das Podagra m6glich zui generen oder nit. Nutzlich ziu wissen allen denen die damit behafft' translated from the medieval German reads: 'On whether it is possible to cure the Gout or no-useful to know for all those who suffer from it.' This small treatise contains a surprising amount of sound advice regarding the prevention and cure of the disease. The author is an early advocate of prophylaxis by the exercise of moderation in food, drink, anger and lechery: he recommends moderate regular exercise as well as avoidance of unnecessary purgation, and 'great sadness or anxiety'. Burgauer, about whom little is known, was evidently an admirer of Rhazes and Avicenna and quotes freely from their works. It is interesting to note, however, that he was evidently also an early follower of Paracelsus as, in addition to his recommendations regarding galenic preparations of herbs, seeds and roots, he attributes therapeutic virtue to metals and precious stones and strongly advocates a compound of metallic gold. Together with the Burgauer treatise, the Heberden Library has also acquired an anonymous polemic poem written in the form of a Sapphic Ode, illustrated with two striking woodcuts (figs. 1 and 2), and printed in Mainz by J. Schaffer in 1537. It is a quarto volume of sixteen leaves entitled 'Gout defending herself before the judge'. There is a long tradition for this type of satire going back to Willibald Pirckheimer, and right into antiquity to Lucian. (Dr. R. Burgess drew our attention to Robert Eisler's article2 which suggests that Durer, in his engraving 'The Doctor's Dream' intended to illustrate Pirckheimer's satire). So few early sixteenth-century medical treatises have been translated into English that the following abridged translation of Burgauer's little book seems well worth printing, particularly as it appears to be the first medical treatise on gout.