O.Henry in a story about confindence men in New York,
has an imposter claiming to be J.P.Morgan, wearing a towel
on one foot, claiming he has gout.
Either the confidence man or O.Henry was misinformed.
I never hear gout mentioned as an affliction of Morgan's,
but he did have "rhinophyma" a big red schnozzola, like that of W.C.Fields.

Signals over! I found a site that said J.P.Morgan also
had gout! The med school lecturer who told us about his
rhinophyma didn't mention that.

And what does cause the rhinophyma? I think of the actor Carl ___________? and Jimmy Durante. Is theirs a case of rhinophyma, too?

Dear WW: So far as I know, there are only conflicting theories about cause of rhinophyma. I don't know the other
two people you mentioned. So many formerly mysterious things have turned out to have a genetic component, it wouldn't surprise me if rhinophyma is one of them. The Internet has many sites about it, but I just don't have
energy to fight my way through them. I couldn't even find
a good picture to cite.

Just now I was browsing Richard Lederer's site, and found a character in a play by Shakespeare of a character probably
afflicted with rhinophyma:
And from a minor character in three plays, Bardolph, notable for his prominent red nose, has come the bombastic—but useful—Bardolphian.

I think of the actor Carl Malden?

here he is:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001500/
I always enjoyed the "Streets of San Francisco". wow. that was 1972...