The Portland daily press., 1886-09-03
ANEW TREATMENT OF EPILEPSY.
Successful Experiments Performed
by English Surgeons.
London Times.

At the meeting on Aug. IA of the British
Medical Association at Brighton. Mr.. Victor
Horsley, f. r. S. Surgeon to the National
Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epileptic'
exhibited three patients, treated in that hos
| pital, whose recovery may be said to mark
| the commencement of new era in surgery.
| They are men who have been suffering from
severe epileptic fits, and in whom Mr.. Hors-
ley has opened the skull and has removed
diseased structure or new growth from the
brain itself.
In the most recent of these three the oper-
alton was performed ON the 18th of July, so
that a complete month has since lapsed; and
the patient was sufficiently well to take che
journey to Brighton. The other two cases
were operated upon, one week or two and
the other several weeks earlier; and in none
of the three has there been any symptom to
interfere with the prsmpt and complete re-
covery. So far, also, the men are cured of
their epilepsy; but a considerable time must
be permitted to elapse before any claim for
permanencc of result can be established.
What is actually proved at present is that it
has become possible, by the observation of
symptoms, not only to determine the fact OF
the existence of some morbid growth Wltnln
the skull, but also to determine It's precise
position with such accuracy that 1t can be cut
down upon and removed. 1t is also proved
that considerable portions of brain may be
removed without injury, the functions to
which these portions are SuDSerVlenC Delng
performed after WHILE. very possibly, by
corresponding parts OF the opposite hemls-
phere.
In two of Mr.. Horsley's patients there had
been injuries, and one of them had been pre-
viously trephined for the purpose OF elevat-
ing portions of bone which were depressed by
fracture of his skull; so that in both OF these
localization was assisted by manifest external
indications; but in the third there was moth
ing of this kind, and the point at which the
skull should be opened was determined solely
by the fact that the fits commenced in par
which act upon the left thumb. The physi-
clan in charge of the case was able to say
that this manner of commencement pointed
certainly to the presence OF continuing
source of irritation near the suface Oh the
brain at definite spot; and, the surgeon
having opened the skull at the point indicat-
ed, tumor was imbedded in the brain sub
stance, and, together with portion OF brain
surrounding it, was removed, so Tar with aD-
solute cessation of the fits. They we're pre-
yiouslly not only very frequent, put, as mlgnt
have been expected, were also increasing
alike in frequency and in severity, and We're
such as to disable the patient from follow
ing any occupation, not to. say that they
placed his life In constant jeopardy from ac-
cident. There are two contingencies In re-
lation to the cases which render 1t impossl-
bic to predict with certainty the permanence
of the results obtained and these are, trSt,
that the scar which must form in or upon the
brain tissue may possibly itself become
source of irritation in tlmei and secondly,
that certain proportion of brain tumors, as
in other parts of the body, are OF nature 10
render recurrence possible or probable.
We have here, then, as r. X. .. pointed
out in relation to the former. case, an Illus
tration of the value and usefulness OF expert,
menting on living animals. DR.. .Hltzlg ana
Dr. Ferrier commenced to experiment upon
living animals by applying the stlmulatlon
of weak galvanic currents to different por-
tions of the brain, so that the offices of these
portions became known, and then 1t was
found that the brain surface is largely made
up of what are technically called motor areas
that is to say, of regions which excite
movements, each in its especial part OF the
body Localization is as yet only in its in
fancy, but even now a skillful experimenter,
by stimulating in succession different parts
of the brain, can cause a narc0tlzed and
therefore unconscious animal to perform
considerable variety of actions with perfect
precision: and it has been found, for exam
ample, that portion of the brain surface
which the phrenologist asserted to be the
seat of ideality, or acquisitiveness, or some
such rubbish, is in reality the exciting centre
of the movements of the left thumb. 1t
was the application of this particular piece
of knowledge which enabled the medical
staff of the National Hospital to point out
the seat of the disease in Mr.. Horsley's third
patient.