A lecture on the pathology and treatment of epilepsy / by George Johnson.

  • Johnson, George, 1818-1896.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the pathology and treatment of epilepsy / by George Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    probable, therefore, that anaesthetic vapours prevent or stop convulsions by lessening the reflex excitability of the nervous system, so that con- vulsions do not occur in etherised rabbits, even though the brain be ren- dered extremely anaemic by hemorrhage or by arterial obstruction. Recent experience has amply proved that the bromide of potassium, in full and frequent doses and sufficiently long continued, is of great value in the treatment of epilepsy. The known physiological action of this medicine renders it probable that its curative effect in epilepsy is a result of its soothing, sedative, anaesthetic influence upon the nervous centres, whose reflex excitability it lessens. In short, its action in pre- venting convulsions is analogous to that of chloroform, differing in being less powerful and rapid in its operation, yet, by frequent repetition, its influence may be rendered more durable and more permanently beneficial. T. RICHARDS, 37, GRF.AT QUEEN STREET, W.C.