Epilepsy and other chronic convulsive disorders : their causes, symptoms, and treatment.

  • Gowers, W. R. (William Richard), 1845-1915.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epilepsy and other chronic convulsive disorders : their causes, symptoms, and treatment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    excess. At six and seven years a rise occurs, and the number of cases in each sex is, in the latter, nearly the same. From seven to thirteen the earlier relation is reversed ; the males are in excess of, or equal to, the females, with the perhaps accidental exception of the cases commencing at eleven. At twelve—that is, in the thirteenth year of life—the maximum for males is reached, and from this until sixteen there is a slight fall. The maximum for females occurs later than for males. The numbers in- crease at twelve and thirteen, and then more slowly, until at sixteen the maximum for any year is attained (50 cases), and they are in that year one-third more numerous than the males. During the next five years the numbers in each sex fall rapidly, the females being still in excess, but the two are nearly equal at twenty-one. The females continue, however, in slight excess until twenty-nine, when the two sexes are affected equally. After this the relation between them is reversed—in almost every year the males are more numerous. The females present no increase at the climacteric period, and they cease much sooner than do the males. The latest age at which epilepsy commenced in a woman was fifty-five, whereas in men cases commenced at fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty- two, sixty-four, and seventy-one. Thus at each of the maximum periods, at infancy and puberty, the excess of females is very great. During the later period of child- hood the numbers are nearly equal. The excess of females lessens after puberty, and ceases by middle life. Relation of Heredity to Age.—How far does an inherited tendency influence the age at which the disease commencesP It is often said that when there is heredity, the disease begins before twenty. We shall, however, see that, so far from this being true, the influence of heredity continues until a late period of life, and, although absolutely great- est in youth, it is relatively only a little less during adult than during early life. Particulars as to heredity and age at commencement were noted in 1,113 cases, of which heredity existed in