"Advice" to a neuropath is usually a very depressing decalogue of "Thou Shalt Nots!" If it be made clear _why_ he must _not_ do so-and-so, the patient endeavours to obey; peremptorily ordered to obey, he rebels. Much sound advice is wasted for lack of an interesting, convincing, "Reason Why!" which would ensure the hearty and very helpful co-operation of a patient who had been taught that writing prescriptions is not the limit of a doctor's activities. Many folk, with touching belief in his own claims, regard the quack as a hoary-headed sage, who from disinterested motives devotes his life to curing ailments, by methods of which he alone has the secret, at low fees. To fight this dangerous idea I have tried to show in an interesting way how science deals with nerve ills, and to prove that qualified aid is needed. Suggestions and criticisms will be welcomed. I. G. BRIGGS THE UNIVERSITY, BIRMINGHAM, _June_, 1921 * * * * * "Lette than clerkes enditen in Latin, for they have the propertie of science, and the knowing in that facultie: and lette Frenchmen in their Frenche also enditen their queinte termes, for it is kyndely to their mouthes; and let us showe our fantasies in soche wordes as we lerneden of our dames tongue." --Chaucer. * * * * * EPILEPSY, HYSTERIA, AND NEURASTHENIA * * * * * CHAPTER I MAJOR AND MINOR EPILEPSY (_Grand and Petit Mal_) "My son is sore vexed, for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and ofttimes into the water."--Matthew xvii, 15. "Oft, too, some wretch before our startled sight, Struck as with lightning with some keen disease, Drops sudden: By the dread attack o'erpowered He foams, he groans, he trembles, and he faints; Now rigid, now convuls'd, his labouring lungs Heave quick, and quivers each exhausted limb. * * * * * "He raves, since Soul and Spirit are alike Disturbed throughout, and severed each from each As urged above, distracted by the bane; But when at length the morbid cause declines, And the fermenting humours from the heart Flow back--with staggering foot first treads Led gradual on to intellect and strength."--Lucretius. Epilepsy, or "Falling Sickness", is a chronic abnormality of the nervous system, evinced by attacks of _alteration of consciousness_, usually accompanied by convulsions. It attacks men of every race, as well as domesticated animals, and has been known since the earliest times, the ancients imputing it to demons, the anger of the gods, or a blow from a star. It often attacks men in crowds, when excited by oratory or sport, hence the Roman name: _morbus comitialis_ (crowd sickness).