Many, if not most Authors, who have entered into the particular Quality of the Gouty Matter, have placed it in an acrimonious acid Salt, and upon that Scheme have gone into the Method of a Milk and Vegetable Diet for the Cure. The Cure upon this Scheme seems to me not very rational, because Milk and Vegetables in their natural State tend to Acidity; and the Chalky Substance of the Gout and Stone in the Bladder (which are pretty near akin) are soluble only by _Aqua fortis_, which is the strongest Acid. The Digestion of Animal Food, which is found to encourage, if not occasion the Gout, naturally tends to Alcalescence; and therefore there is more Reason to conclude the Gouty Matter to be Alkaline than Acid; but the Truth is, there are no evident Marks of either Acid or Alkali in the Animal Juices of an healthy Body, nor of any other Salt but Sea Salt, which is taken in with the Food, and as it is incapable of Change, passes thro’ the Vessels of the Body. There is indeed an Acidity discoverable in the Bowels and lacteal Vessels, which is doubtless owing to the acid Food, for it doth not change its Nature, till it be thoroughly assimilated with the Blood in several Circulations; for even in the Chyle an Acid is sometimes discoverable: This Acid is lost in the Milk, which is but one Change farther, tho’ even in this it is evident there is some Tendency that Way, because of its Disposition to turn sowre by standing. As there is doubtless Air in the Blood, there must be somewhat Nitrous, because there is no Air without Nitre, and Nitre is an Acid, but cannot come within Imagination of occasioning the Gout. That the Gout should consist in an Acid, and be curable by acessent Aliment, the Gouty Chalk dissolved only by Acids, and the Aliment that occasions it alkalescent, would be very strange. On the contrary, there is as strong Evidence that the Gouty Matter is not perfect Alkali, neither is there any such Thing in the Juices of an healthy Body; for tho’ Animal Juices naturally tend to Alkalescence, they putrify before they arrive at that State, so as to be incapable of Circulation: The Disposition of Animal Juices this Way is so strong, that if they were not continually diluted by fresh Portions of Chyle, they would arrive at that putrescent Alkaline State that would destroy the Animal, as is evident in the Case of Animals starved to Death. Twenty Days Fasting will not diminish the Quantity of the Blood so much as a large Bleeding, and in some Kinds of Consumptions the Diminution of the Solids and Fluids is much greater than could happen by being starved; but in the Case before us, the Juices turning Alkaline and Corrosive affect the tender Fibres of the Brain, and the Animal dies feverish and delirious: On the contrary, People have lived above twenty four Days upon Water only, which can happen no otherwise than by diluting the Fluids, and consequently keeping them from this Alkaline State. In short, if the Juices of an Animal Body were either Acid or Alkaline, so as to cause an Ebullition by Mixture of their Opposites, they would burst the Vessels.