An inquiry into the efficacy of digitalis in the treatment of idiopathic epilepsy / by Edmond Sharkey.

Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the efficacy of digitalis in the treatment of idiopathic epilepsy / by Edmond Sharkey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    19/90 (page 15)
    DIAGNOSIS. Epilepsy is distinguished from hysteria by these marks : In hysteria the sensibility is only obscured, never completely lost, and the recovery takes place without any sopor or fatigue. Dr. Marshall Hall says, that the grand distinction between epilepsy and hysteria, consists in the closure of the glottis, which is absent in the latter. Hence in the former case, the expiratory efforts which fill the veins, and thus cause congestion of the brain; and in the latter, the suspirious breathing and absence of congestion. From convulsions in children, by not being so con- tinued or recurrent, and by being more regular in its course. There is likewise in the latter more febrile disturbance, thirst, and disorder of digestive organs. Convulsions are in short an acute disease, whereas epilepsy is chronic. From apoplexy, by the fact that there is in the lat- ter a dormant sensibility, which may be called into action by tickling the soles ; in which case the leg of the apoplectic is drawn up, which it is not in the epi- leptic ; also by not leaving after it permanent para- lysis. It is distinguished from all others by the scream, and the sudden and complete loss of sensibi- lity ; by the spastic rigidity of the muscles in the first stage; by the convulsions in the second being more tetanic than clonic, unless in severe cases ac-