Gout

Although this book traces the history of gout back to antiquity, its heart is an account of the disease as the insignia of the gentleman in Georgian Britain. As Roy Porter and G. S. Rousseau show, gout was commonly depicted as a disease of heredity and excess, something that affected rich men--those who ate and drank, slept around, kept late hours, and squandered fortunes. It was incurable and chronic, but possible to live with; indeed, it was something one might wish to have: not only did it drive out more-threatening ills, the Georgian gentry and their physicians portrayed it as insulation from infection by the lower orders. Its hereditary nature was a sign of good breeding; one acquired it in a similar way to [End Page 820] rank or political sway, by birthright, not by labor or merit. But, if it insulated the elite, it also allowed for fun at their expense. It was, for example, both a sign of dissipation and a reminder that the days of debauchery were gone, a symbol of decrepitude

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