EPILEPSY

is a disorder characterised by fits in which the suferer is unconscious and may also be convulsed. In minor ot sad or “ petit mal,” there is a lapse of consciousne for a fow minutes, in which unconscious acts may be peice: but in which the sufferer does not usually fall. n major epilepsy or “grand mal,” tho unconsciousne is accompanied by convulsions and eM falling, hence the name, falling-sickne . Jackson i an Epilepsy is ‘a disease in the motor area of the brain which produces convulsions without lo of consciousne , and is distinct from true epilepsy in which no diseaso of the brain can be detected char death with any of our present methods of examination. Tho causes of epilepsy are ripest chronic alcoholism in the parents, syphilis, alcohol, or blows on the hoad. The ago of onset is usually under fifteen, but may be delayed to Bs A The symptoms of a fit differ in the different cig A meay be divided into the onset, the rigid stage, convulsive stago, and the stage of recovery. At the onset there is in many cases a warning sensation, the duration of which is often long enough to enable the putient to lie down, but in other cases the patient is struck ten unconscious withort the lea at war no a see may fall in the fire or drown in his bath. The nature of the sensation is most frequently giddine or an Eape ees sensation in the Boriach, but noises in the ears, flashes of light and other hallucinations occur, and the 2azd ELPS. A [s. 360]