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GAINS AGAINST EPILEPSY

1942; American Medical Association; Volume: 120; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1001/jama.1942.82830410005009

2376-8118

William G. Lennox,

Epilepsy research and treatment

A new day—long overdue—is dawning for persons with epilepsy. The ungodly length of the night which has enveloped both patients and physicians is disclosed by a backward glance. If plotted as a curve, medical knowledge about epilepsy would have an initial high point at the time of Hippocrates, followed by a decline to a long, flat level which persisted for two thousand years. About 1700 began a wavering rise. In the last eighty years sharp ascents have coincided with the working lives of Hughlings Jackson, of Gowers and of Hans Berger. Unfortunately a curve representing improved medical treatment lags far behind the rising curve of knowledge. When man lost faith in demons as a cause of seizures, mistreatment by scourgings and trephinings became less popular but no effective positive therapy was substituted. Neither Julius Caesar, Mahomet, nor Lord Byron could purchase any medicine which would influence fits. The years 1857