Epilepsy : in what class of cases, and under what circumstances, may we reasonably hope for cure in epilepsy? / by William Camps.

  • Camps, William.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epilepsy : in what class of cases, and under what circumstances, may we reasonably hope for cure in epilepsy? / by William Camps. 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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    framework. Amongst the influences which we should naturally expect, attended with bad effects upon the epileptic constitution or temperament, are the suppression or retention of the natural secretions and excretions of the body; for, if such secretions or excretions as in health should be evacuated, are morbidly retained within the body ; or, if on the other hand, such as in health shoidd be retained are evacuated from the body, we cannot be surprised, nay, ratlrer we should expect that among other parts of the body likely to suffer from these irregularities, and so become diseased, the nervous system in its various parts would become affected with varied and numerous derangements. That this is so, all observed and recorded medical experience combine to substantiate. In confirmation of what has been here advanced, we may remark that there are few parts of the human framework that are not weak, and occasionally imperfect in some families; so much is this the case that in a physical as well as in a moral sense, most, if not all, of us may be said to have our weak points ; parts of our bodies which ordinarily are the first to take on a morbid action, and if tliis be truly so, in regard to many other parts of our physical frame, it is by no means difficult to comprehend that any weakness or imperfection of the nervous system should be as hereditary as the weakness or imperfection of any other part or organ of the body. Thus we see, as we might reasonably expect, that apoplexy, paralysis of various kinds, epilepsy, convadsions, and hysteria may be, and very frequently are, transmitted from parent or parents to their offspring. The classification of the numerous varieties of cases of epi- lepsy, into the two great divisions of sympathetic or symptomatic, and idiopathic epilepsy, is a classification of the utmost practical value and importance in regard to prognosis, as well as, in many cases of the disease, in regard to treatment; the cases which fall under the first of these two great divisions, that is, the sympathetic or symptomatic, being so much more amenable to treatment, and, therefore, offering so much more reasonable grounds for hope of successful results, than do the cases that faU under the second of these great divisions—that is, the idiopathic. In perusing attentively, the works of the various authors who have taken the trouble to record facts and observations in rela- tion to this dire disease, it is really encouraging, and not a little surprising to note, in how many cases such authors speak of satisfactory and successful results, even in those where the disease is said to have been attended with very violent symptoms during the attacks. Hippocrates, the “ Tather of Medicine,” as he is very com- monly termed, observed, and pointed out that an excessive irrita-
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