ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 268 



There is at least one other proof. If the patient is 

 watched and an aura detected, no fit will ensue if the head 

 is at once wetted with warm salt water, to lower the 

 resistance of the scalp and create an artificial path to air for 

 the congested nerve-force. 



Whatever the cure may eventually prove to be, it must, 

 as one of the curative measures, have the effect of pre- 

 venting the brain from becoming neuro- electrically con- 

 gested and the body neuro-electrically starved. It has 

 only recently been suggested to me by Dr. E. W. Martin, 

 and I have had no opportunity of putting the hypothesis 

 to the test, that a careful galvanometric examination of the 

 spinal cord may disclose such high resistance in some 

 anterior part of it as to suggest a temporary break of 

 continuity. If that feature is exhibited in a number of 

 cases it will be worth while to try to remedy the condition 

 i.e., restore conductivity by local ionic medication. 

 That is a matter for further research and experiment. In 

 the meantime no one, suspected of a tendency to epilepsy 

 should be permitted the use of hair pomades or oils, or, 

 above all, of peroxide of hydrogen. 



As a final word upon this subject I should like to 

 express my opinion of the therapeutic value of the bromides 

 of potassium and ammonium. They act by checking the 

 generation of nerve-force in much the same way that 

 they act in photography. They check development 

 and especially mental development and between a 

 choice of two evils I do not know which is to be preferred ; 

 bromide saves trouble to others, at the expense of the 

 patient. 



CANCER. 



Notwithstanding the fact that many hundreds of the 

 most notable men of their day have devoted and are 

 devoting their lives to the study of cancer, it is unfortu- 

 nately true that the/on* et origo of the disease still remain 



