49*2 
EPILEPSY. 
/Jj/P rofessor Vatel. 
Epilepsy is an intermittent neurosis of the brain, cha¬ 
racterized by convulsive attacks of short duration, with the 
suspension and abolition of the exercise of the senses, and a 
prompt return to the natural and healthy state. 
The horse, the ox, the cat, the pig, and more particularly 
the dog, are subject to it. It is not of frequent occurrence, and 
it appears without any well-marked premonitory symptoms. 
The common appearances in all these animals are the follow¬ 
ing :—The patient suddenly falls ; sensation and consciousness 
are suspended; there is general convulsive agitation, with spas¬ 
modic contractions and distortions of various kinds; the eyes 
are protruding; the pupils distended ; the gaze seemingly fixed 
on one point, and yet the ball of the eye curiously revolving : 
there is convulsive champing of the lower jaw; grinding of the 
teeth, and abundant discharge of saliva; a livid redness of the 
mucous membranes ; turgidity of the superficial veins; involun¬ 
tary discharge of urine, semen, and feces; the pulse wiry and 
small at the commencement of the attack, and afterwards more 
developed, hard, bounding, and frequent, and towards the close 
of the fit (which usually lasts three or four minutes, and some¬ 
times more) irregular. By degrees the animal becomes calm; he 
gets up, appears stupid, dull, and oppressed; he then shakes 
himself—sometimes stales; assumes his former habits, and con¬ 
tinues apparently well, until the next attack. 
In some rare cases in the horse and the dog, there is a stiff¬ 
ness of all the muscles of the trunk and the limbs, and convul¬ 
sive agitation of the jaws, and the discharge of abundant spumy 
saliva, and it is long before the animal is able to rise. 
The fits return at uncertain intervals—sometimes they occur 
once or more every day, but oftener a month or six weeks, or 
more, intervene. 
The causes of epilepsy are frequently obscure. It may, how¬ 
ever, be considered as the consequence of cerebral inflammation, 
rarely primary, but ordinarily symptomatic of gastro-intestinal 
irritation, or the presence of worms in the digestive canal. 
Medical treatment can only be resorted to in the interval be¬ 
tween the fits. It consists first in carefully exploring the nature 
of this gastro-intestinal irritation, and adopting the proper reme¬ 
dies, and, where this cannot be recognized, in endeavouring to 
