Pediatrics Volume 16 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 Excerpt: ...is doubtless due to the pessimistic view concerning its curability that is so largely entertained by the profession. Not until within the last fifteen or twenty years has the amelioration of epilepsy been deemed a possibility. It is scarce a dozen years since any commonwealth in the United States--yes, in the world--has accepted the responsibility of caring for this class of dependent fellow citizens. To as-sert that epilepsy is increasing because certain States have made provision for their epileptics, and other commonwealths arc urgently recommending the building and occupancy of institutions exclusively devoted to the care of this class of cases, would be a futile argument. The fact that many of the learned men in science and medicine are in recent years searching along new lines of investigation for the pathogenesis of epilepsy is authentic evidence that the disease is. not declining. Statistics on the ratio of epilepsy to the population now as compared to its relation ten, twenty, fifty or a hundred years since are nowhere recorded. But few authorities hazard an opinion on that question. Where an expression is given by competent observers the preponderance of evidence is on the side of an increasing frequency of the disease. In no other country in the world has the course of epilepsy been so systematically observed in its genealogy as in America. It is our American authors who, when confronted by facts, accept the conditions, waiving all adverse opinions based on Dr. Brower, of Chicago, says: "My opinion, based on my own clientage, is that epilepsy is increasing. I also have the emphatic opinion that there is a close relationship between alcoholism on the parent and epilepsy in the offspring." Jelliffe, of New York, says: "My opinion is ...