avoided as most injurious.
_See_ Head, Rubbing the.

It is important that those liable to these attacks should be kept
employed. Nothing is so harmful as idleness. Everything tending to good
health is of value, but the essentials of the treatment are found in
soothing the spine as above, and stimulating the brain by the head
rubbing. Unless in cases in which the very structure of the system has
been, so to speak, altered by long-continued disease of this sort, we
should look for good results from such treatment as this. Even in the
worst cases it would be possible to mitigate the severity of the
distress.

A difference in the focus of the eyes often causes a strain on the
brain in the effort to adjust them. This sometimes causes epilepsy, and
we have known many cases cured by the use of spectacles made to correct
this inequality. In all cases of this disease, therefore, an optician
should be consulted, to see if there is any defect in the eyes.

Other illnesses are sometimes mistaken for epilepsy: for example, the
liver and kidneys in a defective state and impurities passing in the
blood to the brain, will explain certain forms of that which passes as
epilepsy. It is often easy to cure attacks of this nature by merely
bringing the liver and kidneys into working order. If there is a
yellowness of the skin, or other signs of the blood failing to be
purified in a natural way, then that should first be dealt with, and
the fits will often be removed as soon as good action is established in
the purifying organs. But in all cases in which there is anything like
real "fits," it will be found of great importance to study the
over-and-under-actions of the nerve system as by far the most essential
elements in the disease. _See_ Jaundice.

Eruptions.--_See_ Hives; "Outstrikes;" Saltrome, etc.

Erysipelas.--This troublesome disease is also known as St. Anthony's
Fire, or the Rose. The skin becomes fiery red or even purplish in hue.
A violent heat and pain in the part accompany this, and fever and
general disturbance of the system follow in a severe case. Swelling of
the parts follows, with much distress and danger. _Air_ irritates
violently the sore parts, and is usually excluded.

In curing the trouble, regard must be had to the cause, which is
usually a general failure of strength from overwork, worry, or some
other disease. If a cure is to be effected, _rest_ of mind and body is
necessary, and must be secured at any po