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XXV. ON THE TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY. 



I have made numerous experiments with regard to the treatment 

 of this dreadful affection, and I intend to publish them, in extenso, 

 when some points that are still obscure have become clear to my 

 mind. Here I will merely relate some of the most important results 

 of my researches. As I have had the opportunity during the last 

 three or four years of observing every day a great many animals 

 (more than a hundred) which had a convulsive affection resembling 

 epilepsy very much, I have been able to discover some very in- 

 teresting facts, among which are the following : 



1st. For each epileptic animal, the number of fits, in a given 

 time, is generally in a direct proportion with the quantity of food 

 taken. 



2d. There is an inverse proportion between the amount of exer- 

 cise and the number of fits. 



3d. Cauterisation of the mucous membrane of the larynx is 

 able either to cure or to relieve these epileptic animals. 



The convulsive affection existing in almost all these animals 

 was the consequence of a transversal section of a lateral half of 

 the spinal cord, in the dorsal or in the lumbar region. 



I have already published the results of my experiments on 

 epilepsy, in rny lectures before large classes of Physicians and 

 Medical students, both in France in 1851 and in this country in 

 1852. 



These results are in perfect accordance with the views of Dr. 

 Marshall Hall in relation to epilepsy. As the views of this emi- 

 nent biologist are generally known, I need not expose them, and 

 I will merely remind my readers of the three following points : 



1st. The first muscles that contract spasmodically in almost 

 all, if not in all, the cases of epileptic fits, are those of the larynx 

 and the neck : 2d, spasm of the glottis taking place then, 

 produces suffocation, in consequence of which convulsions are 

 produced in the trunk and the limbs; 3d, tracheotomy may pre- 

 vent these convulsions by preventing suffocation, and it is known 

 that in some cases tracheotomy has cured epilepsy. 



It has been objected to Marshall Hall that in cases of poison- 

 ing by strychnine, convulsions take place even when a tracheal 

 tube renders respiration perfectly free. This objection has no 



