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EPILEPSY.

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In another place it has been observed, that under the epithet of being possessed by demons, epileptics were included, and an example to this effect is found in the ninth chapter of St. Luke. And, behold! a man of the company cried out saying, Master, I beseech thee look upon my son, for he is mine only child. And lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him, hardly departeth from him." That this lunatic was a demoniac, it is evident, as Mede says, from the 18th verse of the chapter, where it is said, our Saviour rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from

that hour. Indeed we find, that the ancients generally attributed epilepsy to demoniacal possession, and therefore esteemed it a sacred disorder, as it is often termed. (

There is also this additional argument, why it should be attributed to possession, to be found in the fact, that it is generally accompanied, or at least is terminated, by mental derangement.

The history of the disease in the present

(1) “The Greek physicians gave the name of epilepsy, from ériλaußàvoμai, to the present disease, from its sudden seizure or invasion, which is its direct import; and as the violence of passion or mental emotion, to which the Roman people were accustomed to be worked up in their COMITIA, or popular assemblies, from the harangues of their demagogues, was one of the most common exciting causes, it was among the latter denominated MORBUS COMITIALIS; in the popular language of our own day, "electioneering disease," in reference to the time and occasion in which it most frequently occurred; or, according to Seneca, because, whenever the disease appeared, the comitia were instantly broken up."-GooD's STUDY OF MEDICINE.

day, agrees intimately with the account rendered in the Sacred record now under consideration.

It is often preceded by a furious paroxysm, ending in the severe commotion of epileptic convulsion; generally speaking it occurs suddenly; the epileptic falls at once, under the impress of convulsion; the muscles of the face and eyes distort the features into an expression that is truly horrible; the hands are clenched; the tongue is thrust forward, and a frothy saliva oozes from the mouth, sometimes tinged with blood; during the paroxysm there are many remissions. The recovery is occasionally sudden, generally, however, it is more protracted.

Dr. Burrows gives an instance of a quiet industrious man, who suffered from a peculiar and singularly marked attack, which illustrates how hardly it departeth from

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him.' "I saw him," says he, "on the following day; his countenance then presented a most hideous and ferocious aspect; the complexion was a dusky red; his eyes starting from their sockets, and he was continually sighing deeply, or extending his jaws as if he were going to yawn. The pulsation of the temporal and radial arteries was full and laborious. He could make no reply to questions, although he attempted so to do.

"On the third day his intellects were much improved, and he was quiet. He soon quite recovered, but never had the least recollection of the acts he had committed."

THE

DISEASE OF KING HEZEKIAH.

HEZEKIAH is described as sick unto death, and it is expressly told by Isaiah that he shall die, and not live. In consequence of the earnest prayer of the king, however, the prophet is desired in the name of the Lord, to say, "Behold! I will heal thee, on the third day thou shalt go up into the house of the Lord. And Isaiah said, take a lump of figs, and they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered." ('). What this disease unto death of Hezekiah may have been, I am at a loss, for my own part, to discover. Dr. Mead, however, says, and with his interpretation I must be

(1) 2 Kings, chap. xx. verses 5, 7.

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