THESIS

I.

Physicians and others have referred to the affection we intend to discuss here in various ways. They seem to have called it Ἐπιληψία epilepsy because it seizes and holds the senses and animal functions. Hippocrates called it παιδίων πάθος a disease of children, because it is familiar to children. The Latins called it the Great and comitial assembly disease, because if it seized anyone during the assemblies in Rome, the assemblies were dissolved. Others, because of the dignity and defiance of the affected area, have named it the Herculean disease, because it has been judged by all as δυσκαταμάχητος difficult to combat, and not without cause. It is called caducus the falling disease from the act of falling.

II.

Furthermore, that this is an accident proper to the brain is evident from the fact that we see the whole body convulsed unevenly during a paroxysm, and the senses and mind impaired.

III.

Truly, since three things are looked at primarily in the brain: the membranes, the cavities or ventricles, and the substance itself, Galen rightly concluded that the ventricles are affected: and therefore, the brain suffers not as a similar part, but as an instrumental one.

IV.

The name epilepsy is accepted in two ways: it is used more often to express the symptom, namely, for a non-perpetual convulsion of the whole body, with the loss of mind and senses...