ap CULPEPER’s ENGLISH PHYSICIAN, 
hereditary... It may. likewife proceed from frights of the mother when with child; 
_ from blows, bruifes, or*wounds, on the head ; a collection of water, blood, or ferous 
humours, in the brain a polypus, tumours, or concretions within the fkull, excef- 
five drinking, intenfe ftudy, excefs of venery, worms, teething, fuppreffion of cufto- 
_mary evacuations, too great anpeinets ‘ortepletion ; ‘Violent paffions or affeétions of 
the mind; as fear, joy, 8cc. hyfteric affections, contagion received into the body, ‘as 
the infection of the fmall- pox, meafles, &c. In an epileptic fit; the patient generally 
_ makes:an unufual noife; his thumbs are drawn in towards the palms of the hands, ” 
his ‘eyes,are diftorted, he ftarts and foams at the mouth, his extremities are bet oF” 
twifted various ways, he often difcharges his feed, urine, and faeces, involuntarily, 
and is quite deftitute of all fenfe and reafon. After the fit is over, his fenfes gra- 
dually return, and- he complains of a kind of ftupor, wearinefs, «and ee of his 
head; but has no remembrance of what happened to him during the fit,” ; 
CURE, ---If the patient be of a fanguine temperament, and there be reafon to 
fearan obftruction in the brain, bleeding and other evacuations will be neceflary, 
When the difeafe is occafioned by the ftoppage of cuftomary evacuations, ‘thefe, if 
poffible,muft be reftored ; if this cannot be done, others may be fubftituted in their 
- place. Iffues'or fetons, in this-cafe, have often a very good effeét. | When there is 
teafon to believe that the difeafe proceeds from worms, ' proper medicines muft be — 
ufed to kill, or carry off, thefe vermin, When the difeafe proceeds from teething, 
the body fhould be kept open by emollient clyfters, the feet frequently bathed in 
warmwater, and, if the fits prove obftinate, a blifter may be put: betwixt the fhoul- 
_ ders. The fame method is to be followed, when epileptic fits precede the eruption 
of the {mall-pox, or meafles, 8c. The flowers of zinc have of late been highly ex- 
tolled for the cure of the epilepfy. Though this medicine will not be found to an- 
fwer the expectations which have been raifed concerning it, yet in ob{tinate epi- 
Jeptic cafes it deferves atrial. The dofe is from one to three or four grains, which 
may. the taken either in pills, ora bolus, as the patient inclines. “Fhe beft method is 
‘toybegin with a fingle grain four or five times a-day, and gradually to increafe the 
¢ ofe: far: as the patient can bear it. Mufk has fometimes been found to fucceed 
theepilepfy.. Ten or twelve grains of it, with the fame quantity of factitious 
= — sera mpinniorw Wolo: an sai gies oor 
