.CHAPTER X. 



MARRIAGE AND EPILEPSY. 



" Epilepsy is pre-eminently an hereditary affection." J. KUSSELL 

 REYNOLDS, M.D. 



EPILEPSY is one of the most fearful diseases which attack 

 man. From the earliest times it has been more feared 

 than even madness itself. Among the ancient peoples, 

 the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, this disease was the 

 foundation upon which was built the doctrine of de- 

 moniacal possession, and certainly the symptoms of 

 the disorder, as observed during one of the terrible 

 outbursts of maniacal fury to which epileptics are at 

 all times liable, are enough to justify a belief in such 

 a doctrine, in any ignorant and superstitious people. 

 Dr. Clouston says, "No demon could by any possi- 

 bility produce more fearful effects by entering into a 

 man, than I have often seen result from epilepsy," 

 and with this every one will agree who has witnessed 

 one of those terrific outbursts, which so often convert 

 such sufferers into very demons. 



Although, in the majority of cases, not what might 

 be called a rapidly fatal disease, epilepsy is one of the 

 most cruelly painful and hopeless afflictions which can 

 come upon man. It unfits the person it attacks, even 



