EPILEPS Y IN G UINEA-PIGS. 35 



INHERITED EPILEPSY IN GUINEA-PIGS. 

 Brown-Sequard's discovery that an epileptic 

 tendency artificially produced by mutilating the 

 nervous system of a guinea-pig is occasionally 

 inherited may be a fact of " considerable weight," 

 or on the other hand it may be entirely irrelevant. 

 Cases of this kind strike one as peculiar exceptions 

 rather than as examples of a general rule or law. 

 They seem to show that certain morbid conditions 

 may occasionally affect both the individual and 

 the reproductive elements or transmissible type 

 in a similar manner ; but then we also know 

 that such prompt and complete transmission 

 of an artificial modification is widely different 

 from the usual rule. Exceptional cases require 

 exceptional explanations, and are scarcely good 

 examples of the effect of a general tendency which 

 in almost all other cases is so inconspicuous in 

 its immediate effects. Further remarks on this 



D 2 



