The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-25
tbs CURE FOR EPILEPSY.
An Instructive Address ayDr. W. B. Fletcher
to the County Medical Society.

DR.. W. B. Fletcher reported to the Marion
County Medical Society, last night, the case of a
man thirty five years old, who fell twenty ave
feet from the housetop. striking his head upon
spike and depressing the frontal BONE thus
causino well-defusa case of o-;',--- o~s -.
matte insanity After treatment of month at
the Indiana Asylum for the Insane, without
benefit, Or. Fletcher determined to trephine and
remove the pressure.
The depressed hone, of the size of silver
dollar, was removed. the flaps approximated,
water dressing applied The pain, which before
had required constant morphia, was at once re-
lieved; in three days he was about his insanity
was cured, and in a month he was discharged
The fall had changed his whole nature and
the operation completely cured him.
In review of the case DR.. Fletcher said
I'VE see a man whose history prior to fall was
that of SOBER quiet, industrious man. This
fall is followed by change in the whole nature
He becomes an epileptic: his natural affections
are perverted, he endeavors to kill himself and
his friends and yet has periods Of perfect sanity
through period of six years Finally he becomes
almost demented and is sent to the hospital to
prevent suicide or murder, rather than for cure.
A simple surgical operation, lifting little
table of bone, and in forty eight hours the
patient goes forth changed man. He no longer
Graves narcotics; his pain is gone. He no
longer raves, fights or swears but is converted
into mild hammered and gentle man, and on
the goth of September of this year was dis
charged as cured.
Dr. Fletcher said he had no desire to comment
or draw conclusions regarding the psychological
phenomena involved But had Mr.. II. commit
ted murder during any part of that period-six
years-he would have been sentenced to be
hanged by the average honest jury of his coun-
trymen and have been refused pardon or res
pite by an intelligent Governor. Precisely
such an injury, except that there was larger
portion of diseased bone involved, was that
which sent Charles Butler playing the accordion,
dancing and singing comic songs to the gallows
at Columbia City, in Whitley county, but few
months ago. Such cases frequently exist, and
our laws should be so changed that jury CT
experts decide this moral responsibility. rather
than the average jury. But these are ques-
tions for the courts to settle Had Mr. II. COM
mitted suicide, with his constant profanity and
obscenity upon his lips. few priests there
be who would think it worth while to pray
for his soul in hell. And yet fall, in obey ance
of the laws of gravity. has, against his WILL con-
verified him for six years into a 6end and
removal of the slight pressure on his brain con-
VerCS D1In INTO a (QflSLldl. his QueSLlOQ Is one
for the meditation of the clergy"
Dr. Fletcher said further of the Butler case,
that six relatives of Butler-aunts and uncles
had been insane, and four had died insane;
that Butler had belonged to the criminal classes
from his sixteenth year-he was hung at twenty
four-and that his troubles dated from an injury
to the skull.
Upon postmortem much diseased bone was
found and pus escaped freely He had also been
adjudged insane by the laws of Ohio and had
been in the insane asylum of that State. DIR.
Fletcher testified in the case, and watched and
visited Butler in the Jail, and was satisfied
that his insanity and criminality were
traumatic-the result of brain injury
Of ], 400 patients in the hospital under DR..
Fletcher's care, 100 are regarded as epileptics,
although he thought there were many more mild
and obscure forms of the case.
The case, as reported by Dr. Fletcher, was
paralleled by several others in which permanent
cures were effected after epilepsy of many years
standing DR.. Thompson reported two in his
army practice; the late DIR. Athon operated sue
cessfuy in two cases There is no sufficient
theory Of the cure, though the fact of cure is
undoubted.
DIR. Ferguson stated that DR.. Billings analysed
sixty cases of trephning for epilepsy with i'm
provement in forty, and thought the statistics
warranted operation IN many more cases which
are allowed to progress to insanity, imbeclity,
or death. The treatment by the bromides is only
palliative; it is not radical.
The society ordered DR. Fletchers paper pub
lished in the Indiana Medical Journal
Drs T. N. Bryan, Barnes, Keegap, j. W.
Hervey, Maxwell, Wishard, senior, and L. l..
Todd were elected representatives to the Ameri-
can Medical Society at New Orleans and also
Drs. Harvey and Newcomer, who are permanent
members Of the society.