EPILEPSY. 



721 



which may be associated with any of the special senses, of which the 

 tactile and visual are the most common, or may be of a vague dreamy 

 character. In Jacksonian epilepsy the attack is frequently preceded by 

 a sensation of numbness or tingling in the part in which the con- 

 vulsions begin. There is, however, an important difference between the 

 two kinds of epilepsy, in the fact that in the Jacksonian type the patient 



Fig. 329. — Curves showing the effects of cortical excitation productive of epi- 

 lepsy upon the blood pressure, the pulse rate, and the size of the pupil. 

 Pr. , carotid pressure, the height of the mercury column being marked in 

 millimetres on the left of the figure ; H, the pulse rate ; M, curve of 

 muscular contraction ; E, E, period of excitation, occupying two seconds. 

 — Francois-Franck and Pitres. 



is conscious throughout the attack, whereas in idiopathic epilepsy, even in 



very slight attacks (petit mat), unconsciousness is a prominent symptom. 



Certain drugs, notably absinthe, produce, when injected into the 



vascular system, convulsive attacks which are scarcely distinguishable 



from the epileptic fits provoked by stimulation of the cortex cerebri. 



They occur, however, according to the observations of Magnan, 1 even 



1 Arch, de physiol. norm, etpath., Paris, 1873, p. 127. 



VOL. II. — 46 



