EPILEPSY FITS FALLING SICKNESS. 267 



amount of snuff would induce sneezing during a fit. We are told that there 

 once a beggar in Paris who often fell into epileptic fits in the streets; one 

 day some compassionate spectators, fearing that he might injure himself in his 

 struggles, got a truss of straw, and placed him on it ; but when he was in the 

 height of his paroxysm, and performing remarkably well, they set fire to the straw, 

 and presently he took to his heels. 



Kpilrpsy has sometimes to be distinguished from hysteria. An hysterical fit is 

 usually preceded by sobbing, crying, laughing, and gesticulation, and does not come 

 on so suddenly as epilepsy. A young lady in hysterics seldom falls down suddenly 

 as if she were shot, but takes care to slide down gracefully, usually in a soft place, 

 or where there is somebody near to catch her or support and comfort her. There 

 :>e a shriek, but it is repeated over and over again, and is a very different 

 tiling from the epileptic cry. Then in the attack there is not that hideous distortion 

 of the features, neither is there the meaningless eye, nor the dilated pupil, nor the 

 bitten tongue. In epilepsy insensibility is profound, but in hysterics the young 

 lady knows perfectly well everything that is going on, as you may find to your cost 

 if you happen to say anything uncomplimentary about her. After the attack there 

 may be a good deal of exhaustion, but there is not that deep sleep that one gets 

 after epilepsy. 



A fainting-fit is sometimes mistaken for an attack of epilepsy. As a rule, there 

 is little difficulty in distinguishing between them. In epilepsy the heart beats well, 

 and the pulse can be felt at the wrist, whilst in a faint the patient is for the 

 moment almost pulseless. It is sometimes no easy matter to distinguish between a 

 faint and an attack of petit mal. It must be remembered that people do not faint 

 without any cause, although often enough that cause is very trivial. It may be 

 simply the heat of the room, or long abstinence from food, but there is always some 

 reason. An attack of petit mal, on the contrary, comes on momentarily, and without, 

 so far as you can tell, any exciting cause. If any one apparently in good health is 

 sitting quietly in a room not too hot, and, without receiving bad news or anything 

 of the kind, suddenly becomes insensible, it is probably an attack of epilepsy and 

 not a simple faint. If, on the other hand, the room is hot and close, the patient is 

 delicate, and has been excited, and then suddenly becomes pale and falls, it is 

 probably only a fainting fit. 



Epilepsy may usually be distinguished from an attack of convulsions without 

 much trouble. Convulsions occur chiefly in infancy, and especially when the child 

 is cutting the first set of teeth. It is rare for epilepsy to come on at so early an 

 Convulsions as a rule set in less suddenly than does an epileptic fit, the 

 paroxysm is of shorter duration, there is no absolute loss of consciousness at all 

 events, at the beginning of the attack and there is no subsequent stupor. 



Now, as to the probable issue of the complaint. This is a point on which every 

 one is naturally most anxious. As regards immediate danger danger, that is, to 

 life there is little or none. The patient always comes out of the fit, and death 

 during an epileptic seizure is infinitely rare. This is a point on which no anxiety 

 need be felt. But what, about the chances of getting well? "Will the patient in 

 time get rid of his fits, and be as good a man as he was before 1 This is a question 



