purins in food is under control.

An excess of uric acid is commonly associated with gout and similar
diseases. The morbid phenomena of gout are chiefly manifested in the
joints and surrounding tissues. The articular cartilages become swollen,
with ensuing great pain. There is an accumulation of mortar like matter
about the joints. This is calcium urate (not sodium urate as is generally
stated). These nodular concretions are called tophi or chalkstones.

Very many are the hypotheses which have been propounded on the cause of
gout and the part played by uric acid; many have had to be discarded or
greatly modified. Though much light has recently been thrown on the
subject, there remains much that is obscure. The subject is one which is
surrounded with great difficulties, and would not be suitable for
discussion here, were it not for the following reason: Certain views on
uric acid as the cause of gout and several other diseases, are at the
present time being pushed to the extreme in some health journals and
pamphlets. Unfortunately many of the writers have very little knowledge,
either of chemistry or physiology, and treat the question as though it
were a simple one that had been quite settled. Our purpose is to clear the
ground to some extent, for a better understanding of its fundamentals,
and to warn against dogmatism. Our remarks, however, must be brief. It is
undeniable that great eaters of meat, especially if they also take
liberally of alcoholic drinks, are prone to diseases of the liver and
kidneys, about or soon after the time of middle life. Flesh meat contains
relatively large quantities of purins. Purins are metabolised in the body
to uric acid, about half of the uric acid produced in the body disappears
as such, being disintegrated, whilst the other half remains to be excreted
by the kidneys.