It is clear, without further explanation, that while we should seek to place at the disposal of our patients all of those factors which are available, either from common acceptance or personal experience in treating an attack of gout, we must also avoid as much as possible errors in diet, colds, or sudden changes to unaccustomed ways of living - for example, one of our patients feared any illness which might confine him to bed for a few days, as the enforced inactivity was frequently followed by a severe attack of gout. It is certain that much can be accomplished through a carefully conducted prophylaxis even after symptoms of a threatening attack are already noticeable. Ebstein asserts that at such a time patients should be allowed on their feet as much as possible, because in this way attacks have often been aborted. And he further advises a careful massageing of the affected parts, with the exclusion of the joints involved. Duckworth is opposed to any stringent attempt to suppress the attack. If the limited space at our disposal did not prevent us from further discussion we would go more deeply into the details of the question, and in our exposition of the more unusual manifestations of gout or of its less frequent complications, we would point out that while the last ten years have somewhat broadened our knowledge and powers, there are, unfortunately, many of the principal points of this equally involved and interesting dominion which are yet shrouded in darkness. May the time be not far distant in which these also may be illumined through the light of scientific knowledge, when not only the theoretical hypothesis of the pathogenesis of gout, but also the reasons for our therapeutic and prophylactic treatment of this disease, will be placed on a firm and exact basis.