05 June 2023
Do you know any plain and useful rules for gouty people? The latest addition to the Heberden Library can tell you more. Thomas Short’s “Discourses on tea, sugar, milk, made-wines, spirits, punch, tobacco”, published in 1750, lays out a variety of prevention methods during winter and summer and describes how to treat gout attacks.
These historic gout treatments and prevention methods range from wearing flannel to milk enemas and drinking the correct type of wine for the season.
You can find out more about the book’s contents in a new blog from the Royal College of Physicians, which houses the Heberden Library on behalf of the BSR.
The book is currently on display at our office in Bride House, London – please contact us to arrange access.
About the Heberden Library
BSR owns a large collection of medico-historical books on rheumatology and related conditions. There are more than 1,500 items in the Heberden Library, including books, pamphlets, journals, and photographs.
WSC Copeman, the first honorary librarian of the Heberden Society, and EGL Bywaters, the second honorary librarian, were both instrumental in collecting the items that make up the library we have today. The current honorary librarian is Paul Sanders. The collection is updated through donations and the purchase of missing content.
More information about the Heberden Library