430 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



to avoid the occasional ; and as the disease is often confirmed 

 by repetition and habit, so the avoiding the frequent recurrence 

 of it is of the utmost importance towards its cure. 



These are the few remarks I have to offer with respect to the 

 occasional causes ; and I must now observe, that, for the most 

 part, the complete, or, as it is called, the Radical Cure, is 

 only to be obtained by removing or correcting the predispon- 

 ent cause. 



MCCCXXIV. I have said above, that the predisponent 

 cause of epilepsy is a certain mobility of the sensorium ; and 

 that this depends upon a plethoric state of the system, or upon 

 a certain state of debility in it. 



MCCCXXV. How the plethoric state of the system is to be 

 corrected, I have treated of fully above in DCCLXXXIII. 

 et seq^ and I need not repeat it here. It will be enough to say, 

 that it is chiefly to be done by a proper management of exercise 

 and diet ; and, with respect to the latter, it is particularly to be 

 observed here, that an abstemious course has been frequently 

 found to be the most certain means of curing epilepsy. " I 

 have had several instances myself, both in young and in older 

 persons, where a very great degree of abstinence entirely cured 

 the disease, or rendered its return far less frequent than it was 

 before : and when the abstinence was not rigidly enough ob- 

 served, or other causes of fullness or turgescence happened to 

 be applied, it has again returned. " 



MCCCXXVI. Considering the nature of the matter poured 

 out by issues, these may be supposed to be a constant means of 

 obviating the plethoric state of the system ; and it is perhaps 

 therefore that they have been so often found useful in epilepsy. 

 Possibly also, as an open issue may be a means of determin- 

 ing occasional turgescences to such places, and therefore of di- 

 verting them in some measure from their action upon the brain, 

 so also, in this manner, issues may be useful in epilepsy. " I 

 have had occasion to remark the different forms of issues, and I 

 would say that the perpetual blister never appeared to me a 

 sufficiently considerable evacuation to answer the purpose of 

 which I have spoken. Nor is a pea issue easily rendered such. 

 The seton certainly can give the most considerable evacuation. 1 '* 



MCCCXXVII. It might be supposed that blood-letting 



