TY - JOUR T1 - THe treatment of epilepsy by excision of the cervical sympathetic. Y1 - 1899/02/25 N1 - 10.1001/jama.1899.02450350041008 JO - Journal of the American Medical Association SP - 435 EP - 435 VL - XXXII IS - 8 N2 - The mystery that surrounds the etiology and pathology of so-called essential epilepsy yet awaits solution. It may tentatively be conceived that the attacks are dependent upon nutritive disturbances in certain parts of the central nervous system, probably the cells of the cerebral cortex, and that these are brought about by the circulation in the blood of noxious substances, between which and the cells there exists a special affinity. Of the stability of such an hypothesis there is yet wanting definite evidence, but from analogy and reasoning, the conception can hardly be considered far-fetched. Some support of this view may be found in the fact that in many, if not all, cases of epilepsy the number and severity of the seizures can often be favorably influenced by attention to the gastro-intestinal tract, maintaining this as far as possible in a condition of relative asepsis. There is no specific treatment. The bromids SN - 0002-9955 M3 - doi: 10.1001/jama.1899.02450350041008 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1899.02450350041008 ER -