Synopsis of apoplexy and epilepsy, with observations on trachelismus, laryngismus, and tracheotomy; and the proposal for a hospital for epileptics / by Marshall Hall.

  • Marshall Hall
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Synopsis of apoplexy and epilepsy, with observations on trachelismus, laryngismus, and tracheotomy; and the proposal for a hospital for epileptics / by Marshall Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    19/84 page 13
    67. Some patients experience the epilepsia mitior, the ‘ petit mal’ of the French writers, only. But no fact is so common as that of the same patient being subject to both the milder and the severer forms of epileptic seizure. In such cases, nothing is so easy, and indeed nothing is so fraught with deep interest, as to trace the two kinds of attack, dis- tinctly and separately. In every case, laryngismus constitutes the fearful boundary which separates the epilepsia mitior from the epilepsia gravior. 68. In the former, the patient may fall; and this fall may be so as to lead to injury. But the state of unconsciousness, unlike that in the epilepsia gravior, is usually but for a moment, and the patient recovers and rises. There may be said, indeed, to be two forms of ‘ falling sickness,’ —one being the result of unconsciousness, the other of convulsion. The former may occur in the apoplexia or epilepsia mitior ; the latter occurs in the epilepsia gravior only, and is the truly formidable malady. 69. The worst event, in regard to the mere falling, is that which occurs upon the stairs, or in a crowded street. These events 1 have known to occur. I have not known such an attack to lead to falling with violence, or into the fire, or into the water. 70. My object is to state the truth, however ; and I do not attempt, for the sake of an opinion, or an object, however desirable, to give a colour- ing to facts which does not belong to them.
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