81 



value, because the state of the spinal cord in epileptics is not 

 the same as in men or animals poisoned by strychnine. Cer- 

 tainly the excitability of the spinal cord is greater in epileptics 

 than in healthy persons, but the degree of excitability of that 

 nervous centre is much greater in persons poisoned by strych- 

 nine than in epileptics ; and, therefore, it is easy to understand 

 that certain excitations are able to produce general convulsions 

 in one case and not in the other. 



If we give a very slight dose of strychnine to an animal, so as 

 not to poison it, but merely to increase slightly the excitability of 

 the spinal cord, there are no convulsions when we touch or 

 pinch or burn the skin, but if we prevent breathing for a few 

 seconds only, general convulsions take place, exactly as in epi- 

 leptic men or animals. 



It has been said also, in opposition to Marshall Hall, that a 

 spasm of the glottis of the severest kind occurs in cases of hoop- 

 ing cough, of spasmodic croup and even of apoplexy, without the 

 occurrence of any other convulsions. The answer to this objec- 

 tion is, that in epilepsy the spinal cord is more excitable than in 

 these other diseases, so that the same kind of excitation does not 

 produce the same effects. 



A great many facts, that I will publish elsewhere, prove that 

 black blood, very probably by its carbonic acid, is an excitant of 

 the spinal cord and of the medulla oblongata. When, as is 

 the case in asphyxia, the blood is not oxygenated and deprived of 

 the carbonic acid constantly produced in it, or received by it 

 from different tissues, then tne excitation made on these nervous 

 centres becomes so powerful that convulsions are produced. This 

 is found in men and animals, even in perfect health. If the as- 

 phyxia is incomplete, convulsions are not produced, unless the 

 excitability of the spinal cord is greater than usual, and this is 

 the case in epileptics. 



In November, 1851, at the Ecole Pratique, of Paris, I pub- 

 lished for the first time, before a class of about forty young 

 Physicians and Medical students, the results of my experiments 

 as regards the cauterization of the larynx in epilepsy. About 

 eight months after, Dr. Eben Watson published a paper* in 



* Kemarks on Dr. M. Hall's theory of the relation of Laryngysmus to 

 Epilepsy. In London Journal of Medicine, July, 1852, pp. 641-43. 



