, EPILEPSY 255 



Polyneuritis Infectiosa. — Under this name Sellman describes a case 

 of an adult terrier which is similar to primary multiple neuritis in man. 

 The posterior extremities of the animal were completely paralyzed, and 

 their temperature was slightly lower than the rest of the body, the spinal 

 reflexes were gone, with slight opisthotonos, and hyperesthesia in various 

 parts of the body, the heart being weak. As the disease advanced, a herpes 

 eruption appeared, and nodules appeared along the course of the following 

 nerves: tibialis, ischiadicus, peroneus and cruralis. The animal was given 

 warm baths, later cold showers and massage, and gradually the symptoms 

 disappeared and in three months the dog had entirely recovered. 



Facial Twitchings. Facial Spasms. — Muscular twitchings occur in 

 the region of the facialis, as a sequence to distemper and also in chorea; 

 and occasionally they occur in meningitis and certain forms of en- 

 cephalitis; one case described by Cadiot, Gilbert and Rogers was named 

 "Tic de la face," where the twitching followed distemper, and was cured 

 by the removal of the bulbus (original nuclei) of the facialis. There is no 

 relationship between facial twitchings of the dog and the *' tic convulsiva " 

 of man. 



Epilepsy. 



(Falling Sickness.) 



Epilepsy is a disease of the brain, which is not rare in the dog. It is 

 chronic in its course, and appears to be hereditary. Its chief symptoms 

 are irregular attacks of unconsciousness and in older cases accompanied by 

 acute characteristic muscular convulsions. True idiopathic epilepsy, gen- 

 erally incurable, is frequently confounded with the so-called symptomati- 

 cal epilepsy, that is the epileptiform convulsions which appear as a 

 symptom of grave pathological conditions of the brain, or some other 

 change in the skull such as reflex irritation of the peripheral nerves. 



Etiology and Pathological Anatomy. — The causes of epilepsy are un- 

 known, but at the same time there is no doubt that certain diseases of the 

 brain and its membranes, especially chronic diseases, have recently been 

 demonstrated by Otto to be hereditary. This disease may appear at any 

 time during life, and even in advanced age; great excitement and fear 

 seem to play some part in its development. Wasting diseases very fre- 

 quently cause epileptiform seizures which are similar to true epilepsy, and 

 we may also observe in some cases a reflex epilepsy which does not re- 

 semble true epilepsy in any way except in some general symptoms. These 

 will happen after traumatic lesions of the peripheral nerves, in animals 

 harboring intestinal parasites, and in animals having poisonous sub- 

 stances in the intestines. We may also observe epileptiform convulsions 

 in distemper. 



