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The Modern Treatment of Epilepsy

A Critical Survey, with Special Reference to Sodium Diphenyl Hydantoinate and a Comparison of its Effects with those of Other Anticonvulsants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Donald Blair*
Affiliation:
Cane Hill Mental Hospital

Extract

Epilepsy is as old as history. To the ancients it was a sacred disease, each convulsion signifying a visitation of its victim by one of the gods. Hippocrates first seriously attributed epilepsy to material causes, but the light of scientific approach which he momentarily kindled was soon extinguished, and for centuries the mysteries of epilepsy remained shrouded in a cloud of mysticism and religious cult, and if treatment was administered at all it usually consisted of incantations and spirit-exorcising rituals. In the modern era of medicine scientific battle has been joined with this disease in common with all others, and since the epileptic, like most other sufferers, is liable to an exacerbation of his disease in times of mental and physical stress, the present human warfare cannot but render more important than ever successes in the therapeutic field against epilepsy.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1940 

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References

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