"The Plunderings," which described the devastation of Sicily in his time, had a political meaning; and this was perhaps also the case with "The Islands:" at least it was mentioned in this play that Hieron had prevented Anaxilas from destroying Locri. In his " Persians" also there were allusions to the history of the times. Epicharmus also introduced and almost perfected characters which were very common in the drama of later times; and if the plot of "The Menæchmi" of Plautus was, as the poet seems to state in the prologue, taken from a comedy of Epicharmus, it must be granted that the ingenious construction of plots was not beyond the powers of that poet.' Epicharmus lived to the age of ninety (Diog., Laert., viii. 78) or ninety-seven (Lucian, Macrob., xxv.) The titles of thirty-five of his comedies are given in Fabricius (ii. p. 300).

EPICTE TUS was born at Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia. The year of his birth is not known, nor are we able to make any very close approximation to it. He must have been born however before the end of the reign of the emperor Nero, 68 A.D.; else he could not have been more than twenty-one when Domitian published that edict against philosophers, in the year 89 A.D., in consequence of which Epictetus retired from Rome. At the age of twenty-one, he was not likely to have attained sufficient notoriety to bring him within the operation of such an edict.

under his master's cruelty may suffice to prove. The biographers of Epictetus have taken particular care to commemorate his love of neatness.

Epictetus was a teacher of the Stoic philosophy, and the chief of those who lived during the period of the Roman empire. An anecdote given in the Discourses collecte d by Arrian (i. 7) seems to show that he had been a pupil of Musonius Rufus, a Stoic philosopher whom Nero banished to Gyara, and who was subsequently recalled to Rome by Vespasian. The lessons of Epictetus were principally, if not solely, directed to practical morality. His favorite maxim, and that into which he resolved all practical morality, was 'bear and forbear,' avέxov Kai ȧréxov. He appears to have differed from the Stoics on the matter of suicide. (Arrian, Epict. i. 8.) We are told by Arrian in his Preface to the 'Discourses,' that he was a powerful and exciting lecturer; and, according to Origen (c. Cels. vi. ad init.), his style was superior to that of Plato. It is a proof of the estimation in which Epictetus was held that, on his death, his lamp was purchased by some more eager than wise aspirant after philosophy for three thousand drachmæ. (Lucian, adv. Indoct. libr. ement., tom. ii., p. 386.) Though it is said by Suidas that Epictetus wrote much, there is good reason to believe that he himself wrote nothing. His Discourses were taken down by his pupil Arrian, and published after his death in six books, of which four remain. The same Arrian compiled the Encheiridion, and wrote a life of Epictetus, which has been lost. [ARRIAN.] Some fragments have also been preserved by Stobæus.

The best edition of all the remains of Epictetus is that by Schweighauser, in six volumes, Leipzig, 1799. The same editor has published the Encheiridion, together with the Tablet of Cebes, in a separate volume. Coray published an edition of the Encheiridion, with a French translation by another hand, in the seventh volume of the Parerga of his Bibliotheca Græca, Paris, 1826, 8vo. There is an English translation of the Encheiridion, or Manual, by Mrs. Carter. (Bayle's Dictionary; Fab.icii Bibliotheca Græca, ed. Harles. vol. v. p. 64.)

Epictetus was born most probably during the last eight years of Nero's reign. The names and condition of his parents are unknown; neither do we know how he came to be brought to Rome. But at Rome he was for some time slave to Epaphroditus, who was a freedman of Nero's, and one of his body-guard. An anecdote related by Origen, which illustrates the fortitude of Epictetus, would also show, if it is true, that Epaphroditus was a most cruel master. 'Epictetus, when his master was twisting his leg one day, smiled and quietly said, “you will break it ;" and when he did break it, only observed, "Did I not tell you that you would do so?" (Origen c. Cels. vii. p. 368.) We are not told how or when Epictetus managed to effect his freedom; but he could not have been still a slave when he left Rome in consequence of the edict against philosophers. This, which EPICU'RUS was born in the year 341 B.C., seven years is the only event in his life whose date we can assign, took after the death of Plato. He was born in the island of place, as has been said, in the year 89 A.D., being the eighth Samos, whither his father had gone from Athens in the year of Domitian's reign. Epictetus then retired to Nicopo-year 352 B.C., among 2000 colonists then sent out by the lis, in Epirus; and it is a question whether he ever returned Athenians. (Strab., xiv., p. 638.) He was however an to Rome. The chief ground for believing that he did is a Athenian born, belonging to the deme Gargettus, and to statement of Spartian (Vit. Hadr. 16), that Epictetus lived the tribe geis. His father Neocles is said to have been on terms of intimacy with the emperor Hadrian; while it is a schoolmaster, and his mother Charistrata to have pracargued on the other hand, that there is no evidence of any tised arts of magic, in which it was afterwards made a of his discourses having been delivered at Rome, but that charge against Epicurus that, when he was young, he asthey contain frequent mention of Nicopolis. This argu-sisted her. (Diog. Laert., x. 4.) Having passed his early ment is however hardly sufficient to overthrow the express testimony of Spartian.

We do not know when he died. Suidas says that he lived till the reign of Marcus Aurelius; and a confirmation of this statement has been thought to be furnished by Themistius, who says (Orat. V. ad Jovian. Imp.) that the two Antonines patronized Epictetus. But if, as there is good reason to believe, Epictetus was born before 68 A.D., the adoption of Suidas's statement would make him almost a hundred years old at his death; and what is said by Themistius might very well be true, even though Epictetus did not live under either of the Antonines. It may be added, that Suidas's account of Epictetus is in other respects inaccurate. But the strongest argument against Suidas is derived from Aulus Gellius, who, writing during the reign of the first Antonine, speaks of Epictetus in two places as being dead. (Noct. Att. ii. 18; xvii. 19.)

Epictetus led a life of exemplary contentment, simplicity, and virtue, practising in all particulars the morality he taught. He lived for a long while in a small hut, with no other furniture than a bed and lamp, and without an attendant; until he benevolently adopted a child whom a friend had been compelled by poverty to expose, and hired a nurse for its sake. There is a story connected with his lamp which illustrates the equanimity of Epictetus. He had bought one day an iron lamp, which was very soon after stolen from his hut, while he was himself standing in a corner wrapped in meditation; and when on looking up he came to miss it, he observed with a smile, 'I shall disappoint this thief to-morrow, for if he comes back for another lamp, he shall only find an earthen one.' (Arrian, Epict. ii. 6.) Neither was it in trifles alone that his equanimity was manifested, as the anecdote of his patience

years in Samos and Teos, Epicurus went to Athens at the age of eighteen. We are told that he had begun to study philosophy when only fourteen, having been incited thereto by a desire, which the teachers whom he had applied to had failed to satisfy, of understanding Hesiod's description of chaos; and that he began with the writings of Democritus. In Samos he is said to have received lessons from Pamphilus, a follower of Plato. (Suidas; Cic. de Nat. Deor., i. 26.) At the time when Epicurus arrived in Athens, Xenocrates was teaching in the academy, and Theophrastus in the Lyceum; and we may suppose that he did not fail to avail himself of the opportunities of instruction which were thus within his reach. Indeed it was stated by Demetrius Magnes (Diog. Laert., x. 13) that Epicurus was a pupil of Xenocrates. He is also said, on the testimony of Apollodorus, to have received lessons from Lysiphanes and Praxiphanes; and again it is stated that he was a pupil of Nausiphanes. (Id. x. 14; Suid.) It was however Epicurus's wont to boast that he had learnt from no man but himself.

On the occasion of his first visit to Athens, Epicurus stayed there for a very short time. He left it in consequence of the measures taken by Perdiccas after the death of Alexander the Great, and went to Colophon to join his father. In his thirty-second year, 310 B.C., he went to Mitylene, where he set up a school. Staying only one year at Mitylene, he next went to Lampsacus, where he taught for four years. He returned to Athens in the year 306 B.C.; and now founded the school which ever after was named from him. He purchased a garden for 80 minæ, wherein he might live with his disciples and deliver his lessons, and henceforth remained in Athens, with the exception only of two or three visits to his friends in Asia Minor, until his death in the year 270 B.C. The disease

Epicurus was, according to Diogenes Laertius, a more voluminous writer than any other philosopher, having written as many as 300 volumes, in all of which he is said to have studiously avoided making quotations. All that now remains of his works are the letters contained in the tenth book of Diogenes Laertius, and parts of two books of his treatise on Nature (Tepi púrews), which were discovered at Herculaneum. The last were published at Leipzig in 1818, being edited by Orelli. A critical edition of the first two letters of Epicurus was edited by J. Glo. Schneider, Leipzig, 1813.

Diogenes Laertius is the principal authority for the life of Epicurus; brief and incidental notices are also supplied by Suidas, Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch. There is an account of the life and defence of the character of Epicurus, in eight books, by Gassendi (Lugd. Bat. 1647), and a life

by a Frenchman of the name of Rendal (Par. 1679). It is unnecessary to mention the accounts given in Fabricius, Bayle, and all the common histories of philosophy.

The Epicurean school was carried on, after Hermachus, by Polystratus and many others, concerning whom nothing particular is known; and the doctrines which Epicurus had taught underwent few modifications. When introduced among the Romans, these doctrines, though very much opposed, were yet adopted by many distinguished men, as Lucretius, Atticus, Horace; and under the emperors, Pliny the Younger and Lucian of Samosata were Epicureans. A list of Epicureans among the Greeks and Romans will be found in Fabricius, Bibliotheca Græca,' ed. Harles. vol. iii. p. 598-614.

་

EPICYCLE, & circle, the centre of which is carried round upon another circle: a term of the PTOLEMAIC HY

POTHESIS.

which prevail among a large portion of the people of a country, rage for a certain time, and then gradually diminish and disappear, to return again at periods more or less remote. Thus cholera and influenza lately prevailed as epidemic diseases in this country; and the continued fevers called synochus and typhus, and what are termed the eruptive fevers, as scarlet fever, the small-pox, the measles, frequently prevail as epidemics in different parts of the country. It is essential to the medical notion of an epidemic disease that it be dependent on some common and widely-extended cause, of a temporary in contradistinction to a persistent nature. [ENDEMIC.]

EPIDENDRUM, an old name for all the orchidaceous plants which grow upon the branches of trees, and which are now called Epiphytes. [EPIPHYTES.] In its modern sense, it is restricted to a considerable genus of the order with the labellum united to the column, and four pollen masses adhering to as many little straps bent back upon them. Some of them are showy and interesting, partienlarly E. Skinneri, oncidioides, cochleatum, aromaticum, bifidum, auropurpureum; but many are inconspicuous, and of no importance except to botanists.

EPIDERMIS, the external covering of the skin, commonly called cuticle. [SKIN]

EPIDOTE (Thallite, Pistazite), a mineral which occurs crystallized, massive, and granular. The primary form of the crystal is an oblique rhombic prism, variously terminated and longitudinally striated. Its colour is of various shades of green, greenish grey, brownish yellow, and blackish red. The streak is greyish white. Specific gravity, 3.425 to 3.45. It is transparent or opaque. Lustre vitreous. Hardness, 6.0, 7.0. Fracture uneven. The massive varieties are amorphous; structure granular, compact, or fibrous. Before the blowpipe it fuses at the extreme points, then intumesces, but does not fuse even at a very high temperature. Epidote occurs in many parts of Europe, as in Norway, Switzerland, France, and England, and also in North America and the East Indies. According to Vauquelin, it consists of

Silica
Alumina
Lime

EPICYCLOID. [TROCHOIDAL CURVES.] EPIDAURUS, a celebrated city of antient Greece, situated on the eastern coast of Argolis, on a small bay in the Saronic gulf, and surrounded by mountains on the land side. (Strabo, p. 374.) Its more antient name was Epicarus, and its earliest inhabitants were Carians, who were subsequently joined by some Ionians from Attica. (Aristot. apud Strab.) When the Dorians got possession of Argos, Epidaurus yielded without resistance to them, and admitted a Dorian colony under Deiphontes. (Pausan. ii. 26, 1.) The constitution of Epidaurus was originally monarchical; in the time of Periander of Corinth his father-in-law, Procles, was tyrant of Epidaurus. (Herod. iii. 53.) Afterwards the government was aristocratical; the chief magistrates were called Artynæ, or Artyni, as at Argos (Thucyd. v. 47), and were the presidents of a council of one hundred and eighty; the common people were termed konipodes (xoviTodes), or dusty-feet, in allusion to their agricultural pursuits. (Plutarch, Quest. Gr. 1.) Epidaurus was the mother-city of Ægina and Cos, the former of which was once dependent upon it. (Strabo, p. 375.) As the chief seat of the worship of Esculapius, Epidaurus was for a long period a highly important place. The temple of Æsculapius was situated at the upper end of a valley about five miles from the city, and was one of the richest and most renowned sanctuaries in Greece. In 293 B.C. it was so celebrated that during a pestilence at Rome a deputation was sent from that city to implore the aid of the Epidaurian god. (Liv. x. c. 47.) The temple was always crowded with invalids, and the priests, who were also physicians, contrived to keep up its EPIGRAM (Eriypaμμa, Epigramma; from the Greek reputation, for the walls were covered with tablets de-i, on, and ypápav, write), in its proper sense, is—a writing scribing the cures which they had wrought, even in the on-an inscription; whence it comes to signify a short poem, time of Strabo. Near the temple was a remarkably beau- such as might be comprised within the limits of an inscriptiful theatre, built by Polycleitus (Pausan. ii. 27, 5), which tion. For an account of the class of poems called epigrams is in better preservation than any other theatre in Greece, by the Greeks, see ANTHOLOGY; they are dedicatory, deexcept that at Trametzus, near Joannina, and was capable scriptive, amatory, elegiac; rarely humorous cr satirical: of containing 12,000 spectators. Of the temple itself and and their merit consists in the justness of a single thought, the other buildings mentioned by Pausanias there are but few conveyed in harmonious language.' (Preface to Bland and remains. (Leake's Morea, vol. ii., p. 423.) Epidaurus sent Merivale's Anthology.) Much of early Greek history was ten ships to Salamis, and 800 hoplites to Platea. (Herod. preserved in epigrams, to which Herodotus and Thucydides viii. i. ix., 102.) The inhabitants were for a long time the often refer; as for instance those concerning the battle of allies of Sparta. (Thucyd. i. 105, ii. 56; Xen. Hell. iv. 2, Thermopyla (Herod. vii. 228), one of which is thus lite16, vii. 2, 2.) In the time of Aratus they joined the Achæan rally translated: Here once four thousand from Peloponleague. (Polyb. ii. 5.) The territory of Epidaurus was nesus fought with three millions.' covered with vineyards in the time of Homer (Il. B. 561), and the vine is still cultivated on the site (Leake, Morea, ii. p. 430), which is indicated by a small village called Pidhavro.

There were two other cities of this name; one in Laconia, called Epidaurus Limera, which had also a well-known temple of Esculapius. There are still some remains of the fortifications. (Leake's Morea, i. p. 211.) This Epidaurus had a capital harbour, from which, according to Apollodorus, it derived its name Limera. (Strabo, p. 368.) The third Epidaurus was a maritime city of Illyria, mentioned by Hirtius. (De Bello Alexandrino, c. 44.)

E

Coin of Epidaurus.

British Museum. Actual Size. Silver. Weight, 384 grains. EPIDEMIC (πidýμios, epidémius; from inì, in the sense of 'over' 'all through,' and dñμos, ‘people') diseases are those P. C., No. 590.

Oxide of iron

Oxide of manganese

37

21

15

24

1.5

98.5

The Latin epigram approaches nearer to the English acceptation of the term, being much oftener dependent for its merit upon humour and personality. The most distinguished Latín epigrammatists are Catullus and Martial, in whom there is much wit, disfigured by much scurrility and obscenity; but many of the epigrams of Martial are epigrams in the Greek sense, and some of them are characterized by a propriety of thought and felicity of expression that could not easily be surpassed. The Latin Anthology of Peter Burman the younger contains a large collection of epigrams, by numerous authors, of which many resemble in simplicity the Greek epigrams.

In English the word signifies a short poem, which, to be good in its kind, must be clear, concise, and elegant in expression, and must contain a point, i. e. some striking and unexpected turn of thought. Whether it be humorous or serious is indifferent. The following terse and elegant compliment addressed by Pope to Lord Chesterfield, on being asked to write with that nobleman's pencil, may serve as well as any for a specimen :

Accept a miracle: instead of wit,
See two dull lines by Stanhope's pencil writ.
VOL. IX.-3 P

EPILEPSY, epilepsis (èñíλnis), 'a seizing. Syno- | attack so severe as to produce instantaneous death to one nymes: morbus divinus, herculeus, comitialis, caducus; which is so slight that it can scarcely be perceived. Somefalling sickness. Sudden abolition of sensation and con- times, for example, instead of the regular and violent fit sciousness, with convulsions [CONVULSION] of the muscles just described, the seizure consists merely of loss of consciof voluntary motion, ending in a state of sopor or apparent ousness, slight rigidity, spasms or convulsions of a few sleep, the attack recurring in paroxysms more or less re- muscles or of a single limb, the attack lasting only a minute gular. The attack of epilepsy is usually quite sudden. The or two. At other times the patient is seized with sickness person, while in his ordinary health, and perhaps engaged in or a sensation of faintness, the sight becomes dim, the rehis usual occupation, utters a piercing scream. If standing, collection imperfect, and the power of voluntary motion so he falls to the ground, where he lies for a moment in a state far impaired, that the person slips from his chair, or falls of extreme rigidity, almost amounting to tetanic stiffness; from his horse, and lies on the ground insensible, pale, perbut this state is quickly succeeded by convulsions, which spiring, but without convulsions. Or the attack may be so variously agitate the limbs and the trunk of the body. The slight that consciousness is not wholly lost; but the mind head is generally thrown backwards; the eyes are open, becomes confused, the power of articulation suddenly dimi fixed, and staring; the pupils are dilated; the vessels of the nished, and instead of finishing the sentence he was utterhead and neck are swollen, rendering the countenance ing, the person continues to mumble for half a minute or a flushed, and sometimes of a dusky hue; the muscles of the minute the last words he was attempting to speak, in a slow, face are in violent action, producing frightful distortions of monotonous, gibbering manner; and then recovering, he the countenance; the muscles that move the lower jaw takes up the thread of his discourse, being soon aware of an close the mouth with violence, producing gnashing of the interruption of consciousness, which interruption there is teeth; the tongue, which is swollen and livid, is thrust out often an effort to conceal. This state is described by the forcibly between the teeth, and is often grievously wounded; persons subject to it as one of great mental distress and the arms are sometimes tossed violently about the chest, or depression, like a frightful dream: they feel perplexed and struck against it; the hands and fingers are in a state of afflicted by an imperfect reminiscence of some overwhelmrapid alternation, between the motions of flexion and exten- ing calamity, or a sense of remorse for which they cannot sion; the lower extremities are agitated in a similar man- assign a cause. A paroxysm of this kind is like a short ner; the thumbs are drawn inwards, and the toes incurved; mood of extreme melancholy, and such is the impression and a quantity of frothy saliva flows from the mouth, which that the countenance of the patient, which is full of sadis often bloody from the wounds inflicted on the tongue. ness, makes upon the spectator. These slighter paroxysms The muscles on one side of the body are commonly more may recur only at very distant intervals; but they more violently agitated than those of the other. Several cases commonly return often, and sometimes three or four times are on record in which the muscular contractions were so a day. violent that the bones of the limbs were broken, the teeth The return of the regular epileptic paroxysm is exceedfractured, and the joints dislocated. Generally the convul- ingly various in different individuals. Several years may sions have for a few moments some remission, when they intervene between the seizures; or they may recur once are again suddenly renewed with great violence. The every month, week, or day. It is stated that they somebreathing is disordered in consequence of the convulsion of times recur periodically, and with remarkable exactness to the muscles of respiration. At first heavy and difficult as the very day; once a year, or once a month. When they if a load were placed upon the chest, it becomes at length recur monthly, and observe a stated day, that day somequick, short, irregular, and sterterous, and is often accom- times coincides with the new or full moon, a coincidence to panied with sighing and moaning. The diaphragm, the which great importance was attached in former times. muscles of the abdomen, and the muscular fibres of the The interval of a lunar month is more commonly noticed bladder, contract with so much violence, that the faces and among females, from the connexion of the disease with the the urine are discharged involuntarily and with great force. uterine functions. In some instances, the paroxysms occur The pulse, always difficult to be felt, is commonly quick every week, on the same day; and occasionally every day, and small; but it becomes distinct towards the end of the or night, at the same hour; but they most frequently come paroxysm, and is then more slow and languid. The action on when first falling asleep, and are often for a time unsusof the heart is irregular, tumultuous, and loud, and the ca- pected or overlooked. Sometimes several slight seizures rotids throb vehemently. After the contractions of the take place in one day; but their recurrence is often exmuscles have continued for some time, the convulsions di-tremely irregular. When they are neglected, they usually minish in violence, and at length cease altogether. Perspiration breaks out about the head, neck, and breast; the convulsive respiration is followed by sighs, and the spasms of the muscles by subsultus. The patient is now restored Though the epileptic attack usually comes on suddenly, to a slight degree of consciousness; but, as if exhausted by yet it sometimes gives distinct warning of its approach. The the violence of the struggle, he soon sinks again into a symptoms premonitory of an epileptic fit are analogous to state of profound insensibility, and lies in a deep sleep. those which precede an attack of apoplexy [APOPLEXY], During the state of sleep, the perspiration becomes copious namely, headache, giddiness, flushing of the face, throbbing and general over the whole body; the pulse fuller, softer, of the temples, drowsiness, sense of weight or heaviness of and slower, and the respiration freer and easier. After a the head; flashes of light before the eyes, sleeplessness, time the person awakes, sometimes suddenly, but in general fretfulness, irritability, or unusual cheerfulness and hilarity; it is only by degrees that sensation, consciousness, and the disorders of the digestive organs, as voracious appetite, sickpower of motion return. Commonly there is no consciousness, vomiting, constipation, or diarrhoea. But there is one ness whatever of anything that has passed during the paroxysm. On coming out of the fit there is generally headache, and always languor. The convulsive stage may last from one or two minutes to fifteen or twenty, and the sleep from one to several hours. The duration of the whole paroxysm is generally from five to ten minutes; but often two or three attacks follow each other in such rapid succession, that the paroxysm seems to be protracted for several hours. Occasionally death takes place unexpectedly in the midst of the fit, either in consequence of injury inflicted on the brain by congestion of the cerebral blood-vessels, or by the suspension of the respiration through the spasm of the muscles of the larynx, which close the opening of the glottis so completely and for so long a time as to induce the state of asphyxia.

either become more and more severe, or occur after shorter
intervals. Consciousness and sensation being abolished,
pain cannot be felt during the fit.

peculiar sensation, termed the aura epileptica, of which many epileptics are conscious immediately before the fit. This consists of a feeling as if something were moving in some part of the limbs, or trunk of the body, and creeping thence upwards towards the head. Sometimes it is described as a sensation of a current of air, a stream of water, or a slight convulsive tremor; at other times no distinct idea can be given of the feeling further than that it is a sensation of something moving along. This remarkable sensation does not appear to follow very distinctly the course of a nerve, but it seems to pass along the integuments. When it reaches the head, the patient is instantaneously deprived of sense, and falls down in convulsions. The sensation arises in different parts of the body, in the toe, foot, leg, and groin; in the finger, hand, and arm; at the bottom Such are the general circumstances which accompany an of the spine; in the uterus, loins, abdomen, and chest. But, epileptic attack, and the general form of the disease is in the great majority of cases, the attack of epilepsy is prepretty much the same in all the persons afflicted by it; the ceded by no such warning; and even where the premoni chief difference is in the slightness or severity of the phe-tory symptoms do exist, the attack does not by any means nomena, in which there is every possible variety. from an always follow.

Epilepsy rarely occurs in a person otherwise in sound health. Out of three hundred cases, the early history of each of which was carefully investigated, very few had been perfectly well previously to the accession of the disease. Convulsions during the first dentition, eruptions on the skin, mental excitement, diseases of the glands, chorea, hysteria, tremor, cramp, vertigo, palpitation, headache, flushing, bleeding from the nose, precede the first epileptic attack, and perhaps may be considered, at least in part, as predisposing causes of the malady.

As this disease is often long preceded by other maladies before the actual seizure, so, after it has subsisted for some time, it induces a peculiar state of the constitution, and more especially, it would appear, in the nervous system, which predisposes to the recurrence of the attack, and the signs of which internal state are manifest in a peculiar expression of the external features. The eyelids become swollen: the eyes prominent and unsteady; the look vacant; the cheeks pale, the lips thick; and the individual features, however originally beautiful, grow coarse, and lose their fine expression. The steadiness and energy of the mind progressively diminish; the purpose becomes irresolute, and the power of continuous application for the accomplishment of a given object is lost. Instances are recorded in which, though the disease recurred frequently for a long series of years, neither the memory nor any other mental faculty appeared to be impaired; but this is exceedingly rare. In general, in the severe and protracted cases, the following melancholy description, given by an antient author, is but two correct: If the disease be of long duration the patients become torpid, languid, and dejected; they avoid the sight and the society of men; time does not afford any mitigation of their sufferings; they are often oppressed with watchfulness, and when they do sleep they are terrified with horrible dreams; they loathe food, and digest with difficulty; their natural colour disappears, and changes to a leaden hue; they have a difficulty of comprehension, on account of torpor of mind and of sense; they are dull of hearing, are affected with a ringing of the ears and a confused sound in the head; the tongue is unable to do its office, either on account of the nature of the disease, or from injuries which it may have received in the paroxysms; they are agitated by convulsions, and sometimes the mind is so disturbed by the complaint, that persons labouring under it become fatuous or idiotic.' It is an old observation that those who become insane at an early age are first epileptic; and it is certain that epilepsy often terminates in mania, a violent attack of mania often immediately following the epileptic paroxysm. Of 298 epileptics in the Salpêtrière, in 1813, 80 were maniacal, and 56 in various states of mental alienation and imbecility. In 1822, out of 339 cases in the same hospital there were 2 monomaniaes, 30 maniacs, 34 furious maniacs, 129 insane for some time after the paroxysms, 16 constantly insane, 8 idiotic, 50 upon the whole reasonable, but with impaired memories, and liable to occasional slight delirium and tendency to insanity, and 60 without aberration of intellect, but irascible, capricious, obstinate, and presenting some thing singular in their characters.' In this country a very common termination of epilepsy is apoplexy or paralysis. Authors commonly divide epilepsy into two species: first, idiopathic, where the disease depends on some primary affection of the brain, and, secondly, sympathic, in which it depends on an affection of some remote part, as the stomach, the liver, the bowels, the generative organs, the circulating system, &c.

the pineal and the pituitary glands, and particularly the latter. But occasionally, where violent epilepsy has existed during life, the most careful examination of the brain after death has led to the discovery of no appreciable change in its structure; while even the morbid appearances which are manifest are often observed to be present without being accompanied with epilepsy; so that the relation between any known morbid change in the structure of the brain and epilepsy is not yet certainly established. It follows, as has been stated, that nothing is really known of that condition of the brain which causes epilepsy.

But many of the causes of the malady are well ascertained, and the knowledge of these is of great importance in the prevention and cure of the disease. It is conceived that there is a constitutional predisposition to epilepsy, although it does not seem easy to assign with exactness in what this predisposition exists. Several of the exciting causes are weak impressions which are applied to most persons with little or no effect. I conclude therefore,' says Cullen, 'that the persons affected by those causes are more easily moved than others, and therefore that in this case a certain mobility gives the predisposition. It is clear that there is a greater mobility of constitution in some persons than in others, as is manifest in the state of the mind. If a person is readily elated by hope and as easily depressed by fear, and passes equally and quickly from the one state to the other; if he is easily pleased and prone to gaiety, and as easily provoked to anger and rendered peevish; if liable from slight impressions to strong emotions, but tenacious of none; this is the boyish temparament, qui colligit ac ponit iram temere, et mutatur in horas; this is the varium et mutabile fœmina; and, both in the boy and woman, every one perceives and acknowledges a mobility of mind. But this is necessarily connected with an analogous state of the brain; that is, with a mobility, in respect of any impression, and therefore liable to a ready alternation of excitement and collapse, and of both to a considerable degree. There is therefore, in certain persons, a mobility of constitution, generally derived from the state of original stamina, and more exquisite at a certain period of life than at others; but sometimes arising from, and particularly modified by, occurrences in the course of life. And this mobility consists in a greater degree of either sensibility or irritability.' Dr. Cheyne conceives that epilepsy is as certain a manifestation of the strumous diathesis as tubercular consumption, psoas abscess, hereditary insanity, or certain congenital malformations or defects of organization which are inherited only from scrofulous parents. Epileptic patients are of the habit of body in which scrofula occurs. It is an hereditary disease. If due inquiry be made, it will generally be found that although the direct progenitors, father or mother, may have escaped, yet that some member of the family, uncle or aunt, grandfather or grandmother, has been subject to fits; and if epilepsy occur for the first time in a family it is probably in consequence of the strumous diathesis having been exalted by the intermarriage of two persons inheritors of that condition or tendency of the constitution, and which it has been in a yet more remarkable degree if the parents were of the same blood and nearly related; we may then expect, if an epileptic patient has several brothers and sisters, that his case will not be a solitary one in the family.

The exciting causes consist of two classes, those which act by exciting the energies of the brain, and those which act by depressing the brain. Those which act by over-stimulating The state of the brain on which epilepsy depends is un- the brain are mechanical, chemical, and mental stimulants, known. Dissection shows that the brain of the epileptic is and the peculiar stimulus of over-distention; as sharpseldom sound; but much as this subject has been investi-pointed ossifications, arising either from the internal surgated, little light has hitherto been shed upon the pathology of the brain as connected with this disease. The most common morbid appearances are the thickening of the bones of the skull; spiculæ or morbid growths of the bone from the inner table of the skull; vascular turgescence, or inflammation of the membranes of the brain; preternatural hardness or softening of the substance of the brain and of the spinal cord; effusion of serum, blood, jelly, or pus between the membranes, upon the surface or into the ventricles of the brain; tumors or morbid growths in its substance; adventitious deposits, as tubercles, or parasitic animals, as hydatids. Recent researches appear to indicate that the parts of the brain which most commonly undergo morbid changes of structure in this disease are the parts more immediately in the neighbourhood of the sphenoid bone, and especially

face of the cranium or formed in the membranes of the brain; powerful mental emotions, such as joy and anger; congestion of the blood-vessels of the brain; suppressed discharges; violent exercise; too large a quantity of highly nutritious food or of stimulating drink. I have observed,' says Fothergill, that epileptics are often extremely incautions with respect to diet; that children highly indulged are liable to the disease; that in every other period of juvenescence, and in middle-aged adults, if they were attacked with the disease, it was when they had either committed some excesses or by one means or another were plethoric, and that in habits subject to epilepsy, the disease seldom recurred without either an habitual indulgence in eating or a neglect of necessary exercise.'

But the very opposite causes, those which manifestly

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