84 



not to consist merely of the cauterisation of the larynx. The 

 plan of treatment I should suggest is the following : 



1st. A cauterisation of the larynx with a strong solution of 

 nitrate of silver, (at least 60 grains to the ounce,) every day, for 

 at least five or six weeks, 



2d. A cauterisation of the skin of the neck over the spine, 

 with a hot iron, once a fortnight, for about two or three months. 



3d. Exercise and gymnastics. 



4th. Make use of oxide of zinc or ammoniated copper, remedies 

 which a very respectable physician of Geneva, ('Switzerland,) 

 Dr. Herpin, has found successful in many cases, when their dose 

 has been considerable.* 



5th. If in a fit of epilepsy the suffocation is very considerable, 

 the operation of tracheotomy ought then to be performed imme- 

 diately. 



XXVI, CUKE OF EPILEPSY BY SECTION OF A NERVE. 



It is a well known fact that epilepsy may be produced by injury 

 to a nerve. Dr. John Cooke, in his Treatise on Nervous Diseases, 

 says on this subject : " From the writings of Forestus, Van Swie- 

 ten and Tissot, it appears that injury done to the nerves, or that 

 a morbid state of them, has in many instances given occasion to 

 epilepsy. In the Edinburgh Medical Essays and Olserv., a 

 case is related of a violent epilepsy, which frequently occurred, 

 which was produced by a hard cartilaginous substance, of the 

 size of a large pea, situated upon a nerve. That this was the 

 cause was evident, as the disease ceased on the extirpation of the 

 tumor. In the same we have an account of epilepsy depending 

 upon a calculus of an irregular figure, about the size of a nut, 

 pressing on a branch of the sciatic nerve ; and another in which 

 the par vagum was compressed by a concretion of a similar 

 kind." Darwin, in his Zoonomia, says, "I once saw a child 

 about ten years old, who frequently fell down in convulsions, as 

 she was running about in play. On examining, a wart was 

 found on one ankle, which was ragged and inflamed, which was 

 cut off, and the fits never recurred." 



* See his admirable work: Du Pronostic et du Trailement de V Epilepsie. 

 Paris, 1852. Ouvrage couronne par PInstitut de France. 



