70 ANALYTIC SECT. VII. 
rupted; the vital force is not increased, because 
there is no augmentation of animal heat, and the 
soft fibrous texture does not possess its natural 
expansibility ; even the intestinal canal, which is 
less under the cerebral influence than the muscles, 
sometimes contracts to such a degree that the feces 
are expelled during the convulsive paroxysm. 
cLxI. Lastly, epilepsy terminates occasionally 
in apoplexy; which is any thing but an excitement 
of the brain, although it is unquestionably caused 
by stimulants. Upon the whole, it would there- 
fore appear, that those who regard epilepsy, under 
any circumstance, as an excitement of the brain, 
confound cause and effect. 
cLxi1. Those causes of epilepsy which directly 
diminish the vital force, are hemorrhagy and 
depressing passions, as grief, fear, and horror; to 
these perhaps may be added the aura epileptica, on 
which, however, I have no distinct notion. Cullen 
alleges that several poisons also directly reduce the 
energy of the brain. 
cLxi. When epilepsy has oceurred once, it 
always leaves behind a predisposition to relapse. 
At the battle of Leipsic, a French conscript was 
standing near the sergeant-major of his corps, 
when a cannon ball struck the latter on the head, 
and besprinkled the former with the brains,of his 
companion. ‘The young soldier was so shocked at 
the accident, that he fell instantly into an epileptic 
