Volume 1

The Family physician : a manual of domestic medicine to which is added, the ladies' physician / by physicians and surgeons of the principal London hospitals.

Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Family physician : a manual of domestic medicine to which is added, the ladies' physician / by physicians and surgeons of the principal London hospitals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    amount of snuff would induce sneezing during a fit. We are told that there was once a beggar in Paris who often fell into epileptic fits in the streets; one day some compassionate spectators, fearing that he might injure himself in his struggles, got a truss of straw, and placed him on it ; but when he was in the height of his paroxysm, and performing remarkably well, they set fire to the stra w, and presently he took to his heels. Epilepsy has sometimes to be distinguished from hysteria. An hysterical fit is usually preceded by sobbing, crying, laughing, and gesticulation, and does not come on so suddenly as epilepsy. A young lady in hysterics seldom falls down suddenly as if she were shot, but takes care to slide down gracefully, usually in a soft place, or where there is somebody near to catch her or support and comfort hei. Uierc may be a shriek, but it is repeated over and over again, and is a very different thing from the epileptic cry. Then in the attack there is not that hideous distortion of the features, neither is there the meaningless eye, nor the dilated pupil, nor the bitten tongue. In epilepsy insensibility is profound, but in hysterics the young lady knows perfectly well everything that is going on, as you may find to ) our cost if you happen to say anything uncomplimentary about her. After the attack there may be a good deal of exhaustion, but there is not that deep sleep that one gets after epilepsy. A fainting-fit is sometimes mistaken for an attack of epilepsy. As a rule, there is little difficulty in distinguishing between them. In epilepsy the heart beats well, and the pulse can be felt at the wrist, whilst in a faint the patient is for the moment almost pulseless. It is sometimes no easy matter to distinguish between a faint and an attack of 'petit nial. It must be remembered that people do not faint without any cause, although often enough that cause is very trivial. It may be simply the heat of the room, or long abstinence from food, but there is always some reason. An attack of petit vial, on the contrary, comes on momentarily, and w ithout, so far as you can tell, any exciting cause. If any one apparently in good health is sitting quietly in a room not too hot, and, without receiving bad news or anything of the kind, suddenly becomes insensible, it is probably an attack of epilepsy and not a simple faint. If, on the other hand, the room is hot and close, the patient is delicate, and has been excited, and then suddenly becomes pale and falls, it is probably only a fainting fit. Epilepsy may usually be distinguished from an attack of cone ulsions w ithout much trouble. Convulsions occur chiefly in infancy, and especially when the child is cutting the first set of teeth. It is rare for epilepsy to come on at so early an age. Convulsions as a rule set in less suddenly than does an epileptic fit, the paroxysm is of shorter duration, there is no absolute loss of consciousness at all events, at the beginning of the attack—and there is no subsequent stupor. Now, as to the probable issue of the complaint. This is a point on which every one is naturally most anxious. As regards immediate danger—danger, that is, to life—there is little or none. The patient always comes out of the fit. and death during an epileptic seizure is infinitely rare. This is a point on which no anxiety need be felt. But what about the chances of getting well! Will the patient in time get rid of his fits, and be as good a man as he was before 1 This is a question