An inquiry into the nature and causes of epilepsy; with the function of the spleen; and the use of the thyroid body, etc / [John Jackson].

  • Jackson, John, -1855
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the nature and causes of epilepsy; with the function of the spleen; and the use of the thyroid body, etc / [John Jackson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A great number of exciting causes have been mentioned by different authors. The sympathetic epilepsies are merely technical expositions of some of the supposed exciting causes. Dr. Elliotson states, in his Lectures, that “ the disease may arise from every sort of irritation in every part of the body.” It would indeed be difficult to say to what it has not been attributed; for example, M. Andral (Lancet, No. 502) is represented to have said, that “ a great majority of cases are known to occur by night, and it would be difficult to decide, whether sleep, or the absence of the sun from the hemisphere, was the actual cause; both, perhaps, contribute to the effect produced !” The following are considered as the principal exciting causes :— 1. Sudden fear or fright. 2. Inordinate mental emotion ; as, anger, grief, anxiety, disappointment, &c. 3. Excessive venery, and masturbation. 4. Suppression of accustomed evacuations, es¬ pecially the hsemorrhoidal; repelled cutane¬ ous eruptions. 5. Eruptive period of certain exanthematous affections ; as, small-pox, measles, scarlet fever. 6. Plethora, or anaemia; excessive blood-letting ; hypercatharsis; worms. Tissot, Esquirol, Georget, and J. Frank, indeed all the best authorities upon the disease, both British and foreign, agree in regarding Fear as the most