_Epilepsy._--Epilepsy frequently coexists with mental deficiency. Now, epilepsy does not always reveal itself by severe fits with crying, falling down, loss of consciousness, convulsions, stiffness followed by jerking of the limbs, foaming at the mouth, biting of the tongue, and involuntary passage of urine. It is revealed also by symptoms of a less striking nature, which have been described under the name of _petit mal_. Such are loss of consciousness, vertigo, or simply mental perturbations. Loss of consciousness occurs without the tremor of a muscle, the child suddenly turns pale, loses consciousness for a moment, and then continues whatever he was doing--for example, walking or writing. There is nothing more impressive to notice when the fit occurs as one is talking to the little patient. One sees, as it were, the passing of a veil. But nothing could be more fugitive, nothing could more easily escape the notice of anyone who was not a good observer. Often the parents know nothing about it. The attacks are so short, the consequences apparently so slight, that even if the parents have chanced to notice them, they do not always think of mentioning the fact. The teacher of defective children ought to be instructed in the characteristics of this affection. He is going to spend several hours daily with the children. He will have the best opportunities for noticing the occurrence of attacks, which may be rare, but which, when they occur, are very significant. Although the symptoms are a little more marked, vertigo also is of brief duration. To the pallor and the loss of consciousness of the preceding condition there is added a little muscular relaxation. The child totters, supports himself by anything in his neighbourhood, slips down in his seat, or drops his pen. Sometimes there is a slight spasm of the muscles of the face, the mouth is drawn to one side by slight jerks, or performs some movements of mastication or deglutition. And that is all--no convulsions of the limbs, no passage of urine, scarcely an interruption to the work which is being done. Whether the doctor discovers these symptoms by interrogation of the parents, or whether the teacher some time afterwards describes them to him with sufficient detail to permit of a certain diagnosis, a double gain results. In the first place, there is an indication for treatment; and in the second, the possibility of supervision. As a matter of fact, it too frequently happens that these symptoms, little dramatic as they are, reveal the existence of epilepsy, which will ultimately result in progressive mental decadence.