Epilepsy: its Medical and Moral Treatment and Cure
EPILEPSY: ITS TREATMENT AND CURE. 359
- Author:
Frederick (jK)Odchild, late Physician to the Warwick Dispensary;
late House Surgeon, Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital; and Author of The Mineral Waters of Leamington ; their Medicinal Properties and Uses, 4’C; London: J. & A. Churchill, New Burlington Street, 1876. Our author commences by giving a concise summary of all the known leading symptoms of this terrible malady in the suddenness of the attack, the foaming saliva often tinged with blood, the ” cry,” the ” aura epileptica.” From his own experience we learn that there are two classes of epileptics?first, those who become morose, and make themselves as disagreeable as possible; second, those of a vivacious disposition, who become mischievous, and even dangerous. The time of life is open to considerable variation. There are the epileptiform seizures of infants; and we find the disease present at the age of five to puberty, and so on to thirty or forty years. The causes giving rise to the disease are centric and eccentric; as instances of the latter are worms, dentition, and other local irritations in children, and in the adult the tapeworm, uterine irritation, &c.
The centric causes may be said to be peculiar formation of the head, ossific particles in dura mater, and development of tumours. Epilepsy may be hysterical or feigned, or produced by fright. In these cases recovery is almost certain.
The eventual effect of the attack greatly varies. Sleep is generally the immediate effect, consciousness returning in some cases speedily, in others the reverse. Sometimes there is slight paralysis. Mental power, vivacity and intelligence may decline, or insane delusions may arise, frequently causing suicidal tendency.
The habits and characteristics of those subject to the complaint are unmistakeable. They are careless, artful and designing, bite the nails, given to self-abuse. The pupil is generally dilated, the pulse small and feeble. The writer is of opinion that the patient should not be held during the paroxysms, since this measure frequently aggravates the convulsive movements. As to medical treatment, if the case be eccentric, remove the irritating cause; should the secretions be suppressed or vitiated, restore them to a healthy condition If menstruation be at fault, a course of pil. aloes c. myrrh, c ferri sulph. will often produce the desired result. If venereal taint be present, as nodes, etc., iodide and bromide of potassium and the mercurial vapour bath may prove effi- cacious. In the centric forms the sheet anchor is bromide of potassium, administered regularly with ext. lupuli or lettuce. Small doses are of no use. Commence with ten or twelve grains three times a day of the bromide, and increase the dose at intervals when pushed. The only unpleasantness is slight coryza with sneezing. In many cases cod- liver oil is a valuable adjunct.
This careful little work is brought to a conclusion by some exceed- ingly useful remarks upon the moral treatment of the disease; and some interesting cases of recovery are quoted, showing how useful the force of example becomes when judiciously brought to bear upon those afflicted with the malady.
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