SECT. VII. PHYSIOLOGY. 71 
fit, which returned habitually about once a month. 
In this case, the vital and mental functions of the 
brain were directly reduced by a scene abundantly 
horrific to a mind not yet hardened with warfare. 
cLxiv. In epilepsy arising from emotions of the 
mind, we have no clear perception of their operat- 
ing power; we can judge of them only from 
their consequences. 
cLtxv. In the brains of those who die of 
epilepsy are often found tumors, abcesses, thick- 
ening of the membranes, and tubercles; effusions 
of serum are also frequently detected, of which I 
shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Ina 
memoir lately presented to the academy of Paris, 
by Dr. Desmoulins, there is a relation of an 
autopsy, where the facial nerves of a man who 
had died of epilepsy were greatly enlarged; the 
perforans casseri and median nerve of the left 
arm were likewise thicker than the same nerve of 
the right arm. No inference can be drawn from 
such a cireumstance, because the quantity of vital 
force is not regulated by the quantity of nervous 
substanee, but by its division, and thereby multi- 
plying its points of contact with the blood-vessels. 
cLxvi1. When epilepsy is caused by injuries or 
disorganization, it is almost constantly incurable: 
It is obvious that the practice should be regulated 
by thenature of the exciting causes, and in general 
