under their influence, an alteration takes place slowly in the
child's disposition. It loses its cheerfulness and brightness, its face
assumes a heavy look, it becomes fretful, and its intelligence grows
duller.

Almost invariably after the attacks of this, which has been called the
_petit mal_, have continued for some months, a change begins to take
place, which does not fail to excite attention and to cause alarm. If
seated, the child's head drops forward for a moment, and strikes against
the table; if standing, it becomes for an instant dizzy, and staggers,
or even falls, and then there is twitching of one limb, or of the
muscles of the face, and then the complete fit of epilepsy, ushered in
sometimes, but not always, by a momentary cry, and then the convulsive
twitching of one limb, followed in a minute or in less time by
convulsions of the whole body as well as of the limbs. The upturned
eyes, which do not see, are horribly distorted, the child foams at the
mouth, it is insensible, and the insensibility deepens into stupor, or
is followed by heavy sleep, for a quarter of an hour, or an hour or
more, from which the patient arouses feeling tired and bruised, and
often with an aching head, but with no remembrance of what has passed
during the seizure so distressing to bystanders.

It has throughout been my endeavour not to lose sight of those for whom
this little book has been written, and with reference to epilepsy, as
with reference to many other things, I pass over much that would be
important to the practitioner of medicine, to dwell on those points
which mainly interest the parents, and which they are perfectly able to
appreciate.

The question is often put as to the probability of fits terminating in
epilepsy; or, on the other hand, as to the ground for hope in any case
that epileptic attacks, which have already often recurred, will
eventually cease. In the first place, no conclusion can safely be drawn
from the severity of a convulsion, nor from its general character, as to
the probability of its frequent recurrence, or of its passing into
permanent epilepsy. The severity of a fit certainly affords no reason
for this apprehension, nor does its recurrence, so long as a distinct
exciting cause can be discovered for each return. The fits, which cease
in the teething child when the gum is lanced, and which, on each
succeeding return are equally relieved by the same proceeding, do not
imply that there is any grea