London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
SHORT CUTS TO HEALTH.
Now and again you come upon stories of the marvellous effects of specialities. For instance, there is one very well known in service circles as a certain | |
296 | cure for gout. Several of my soldier and sailor friends have tried it, and with great success. The story goes that the members of a certain very distinguished club had very many years ago a reputation for speaking on occasion harshly to the waiters, and when much irritated making use of such improper expressions as and even (but this, of course, only on the rarest of rare occasions) The lamentable exhibitions of anger were entirely attributable to the prevalence of gout. |
According to the legend, by a sort of miracle it became known to the members of the club that the good sisters of a certain convent in foreign parts supplied for twenty-five francs, a box of powders that contained 365 packets. By taking one of the nuns' prescriptions daily for a year a cure was performed, and the patient, from the most irritable became one of the most amiable of men. | |
Such is the story. It is said (and I believe with truth) that nowadays the members of the service club in question are so gentle in their manners, that they serve as a contrast to the comparatively blustering bishops in a well known literary located in the near neighbourhood. | |
However, lest it may be thought that this specific for gout amongst the military is invariably infallible, it is only right to say that I found it not entirely satisfactory | |
297 | in one instance. A very old and valued friend of mine tried it. |
said he, | |
But to be entirely just I must admit that my friend, although one of the best and smartest soldiers I have ever met, had only held a commission in the Auxiliary Forces. To take proper effect the cure for gout should be tried upon a Major-General at the least -indeed, the nuns (so I have been told) prefer a Field-Marshal. | |
