EPILEPTIC ORIGIN OF ISLAMISM. 6o 5 



of the universe and from the mind of man himself. And that the pur- 

 suit of natural science does not lead to materialism, and in no way in- 

 jures the ideal mind, is vouched for by the case of Alexander von 

 Humboldt himself, who, even in extreme old age, kept up his love for 

 research and power of work as well as his lively susceptibility for and 

 energetic share in all the noble pursuits of mankind. 



Dr. Cohn concludes his lecture, so brimful of true eloquence 

 founded on sober fact, with a high compliment to the many worthy 

 qualities of the president of the Silesian Society, Dr. Goeppert. Such 

 a man as he is said to be, the lecturer truly says, may hope, like 

 Goethe, Humboldt, and other previous philosophers, to maintain, to the 

 utmost limit of existence, life, heart, and spirit, full of the freshness of 

 youth, and, moreover, in later generations be honored as a true guar- 

 dian of the highest good of grateful mankind. Nature. 







EPILEPTIC ORIGIN OF ISLAMISM. 



DR. J. C. HOWDEN", medical superintendent of the Montrose 

 Royal Lunatic Asylum, recently read an able paper before the 

 Edinburgh Medico-Psychological Association on the mental condition 

 of epileptics in relation to the religious sentiment. He states that 

 these patients manifest the strangest mental contradictions. Irrita- 

 bility, suspicion, impulsive violence, egotism, and strong homicidal 

 propensities, are among the most commonly-observed characteristics 

 in the insane epileptic ; but these traits are very frequently combined 

 . with strong devotional feeling, manifested in simple piety or in de- 

 cided religious delusions. Dr. Howden has the following remarks on 

 the peculiar mental characteristics of epileptics : 



" The mysterious nature of the disease the consciousness of infirm- 

 ity and helplessness develops a craving for sympathy in the epileptic 

 which we rarely see in other lunatics. In the wards and airing-courts of 

 our asylums, epileptics may be distinguished from their fellow-patients 

 by the fact that they are generally found associating in little groups of 

 twos or threes. They sympathize with each other, lean on each other 

 for help in the time of trouble, and, however much they exhibit violence 

 and viciousness to others, they rarely attack each other. Along with 

 this desire for sympathy, the epileptic is mercifully endowed with 

 strong hope. He is always getting over his trouble, he thinks the 

 turns are less severe, and will tell you, perhaps the day before a fatal 

 seizure, that he thinks he will have no more fits. We all know how 

 much hope has helped the physician in his efforts to combat this dis- 

 ease with a whole battery of drugs, each of which in its turn seems for 

 a time to promise success, only too surely to fail in the end. This 



