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 EPIMENIDES CAUSES. 1. Starting of an excitation from a sensitive or an ex- j citable part of the nervous ''. system. j 9,. Contraction of the blood j vessels of the brain proper, j 3. Accumulation of blood at the base of the encephalon, due to its expulsion from the brain proper, &c. 4. Spasm of larynx and of ex- piratory muscles. 5. Asphyxia. 6. Exhaustion of nervous power, except of the part of the nervous centres em- ployed in respiration. 7. Keturn of respiration. EPIPHANIUS 685 EFFECTS. 1. Contraction of the blood vessels of the brain proper, and contraction of some muscles, -by a reflex action from the central seat of the disease. 2. Loss of consciousness. 3. Spasm of the larynx and of the muscles employed in expiration. 4. Cry and asphyxia. 5. General clonic convulsions. 6. Cessation of the convul- sions and return of respira- tion. i 7. Return of consciousness. so: I! fa, The first thing to be done for an epileptic is to find out the cause of the disease, and to try to get rid of that cause if it still exists. Very often epilepsy depends upon some ' external cause of irritation which may easily be re- moved ; it is of the greatest importance to dis- cover if there is anywhere such an irritation, and as the patient may not be aware of its ex- istence, it is necessary to look for it every- where. Of the various modes of treatment, the most powerful are those means of exciting the skin which most readily produce a change in the nutrition of the encephalon and spinal cord. All physicians know what these means are. One of the most efficacious remedies is bella- donna. Patients and their families should re- member that the rules of hygiene must be fol- lowed by epileptics much more closely than by those afflicted with almost any other disease. EPIMENIDES, a poet and hero of Onossus, in the island of Crete, flourished in the 7th century B. C. He was a contemporary of the seven wiso men of Greece, among whom he is sometimes counted in place of Periander. He was principally occupied with politics and legislation, but of his treatises on these sub- jects nothing remains. He also wrote a poem on the Argonautic expedition, which is lost. There are many fabulous accounts of his life. He is said to have passed 57 years in profound sleep in a cavern, and to have possessed the marvellous power of separating himself from his body. The Athenians suffering from a plague invoked his aid, and he removed the scourge. His life was prolonged, according to some, to the age of 154, 157, or even 299 ears. EPINAL, a town of Lorraine, France, capital the department of Vosges, 195 m. E. S. E. of Paris; pop. in 1866, 11,870. It lies at the foot of the Vosges mountains, on the railway from Nancy to Belfort, and on the river Mo- selle, which is here separated by an island into two channels, dividing the town into three parts, connected by bridges. The fortifications built in the 13th century have been destroyed, but the ruins of an old castle remain. The town is well built, and has a Gothic church of the 14th century, a theatre, hospital, communal college, museum, and public library of 20,000 volumes, tanneries, and manufactories of cut- lery, copper, china ware, paper, and oil. It was occupied by the Germans Oct. 11, 1870. Marble of various colors and freestone are quarried in the vicinity. EPINAY, Louise Florence Petronille de la Live d>, a French authoress, born in 1725, died April 17, 1783. She was unhappily married, and while yet young became the mistress of Jean Jacques Rousseau, for whom she built in 1755 his celebrated " Hermitage," and with whom she lived till he became jealous of Grimm, in- troduced to her by himself. He was also jeal- ous of her friends Diderot and D'Holbach. She lived in seclusion for the last 25 years, but maintained intimate relations with Grimm, and during his absence from France continued, under the guidance of Diderot, his literary cor- respondence with the sovereigns of Europe. She wrote an educational work entitled Con- versations dSUJmilie, to which a prize was awarded by the French academy in 1783. Her Memoires et correspondence (3 vols., Paris, 1818) contains many letters of Rousseau, Dide- rot, and Grimm, and abounds with information on French society and character in the 18th century. EPIORNIS, one of the gigantic ostrich-like birds of which the dinornis is the type. It was a native of Madagascar, and became ex- tinct probably since the historic period, or at any rate since the appearance of man. The E. maximus, judging from the bones of the leg, must have been at least 12 ft. high. The egg measured 13 in. in length, being as large as 6 ostrich eggs or 144 hen's eggs. This bird, though wingless, may have given rise to the fabled roc ; and it must have been seen by primitive man, whose traditions have handed down to eastern nations an exaggerated ac- count of its size. EPIPHANIUS, Saint, a father of the church, born near Eleutheropolis in Palestine about 310, died at sea in 402 or 403. He was of Jewish parentage, but having become a Chris- tian retired to an Egyptian monastery, where he mastered the Hebrew, Coptic, Syriac, Greek, and Latin languages. At the age of 20 he returned to Palestine, founded a monastery which he governed for 30 years, and wrote several books for the instruction of his monks. In 367 he was made bishop of Salamis in Cy- prus, as a reward for the zeal with which he had combated the heresy of Arms and the er- rors attributed to Origen. After the persecu- tion of Valens he made a journey to Antioch to convert the Apollinarian patriarch Vitalis ; thence went to Rome, where he met St. Je- rome ; and some time afterward proceeded to Jerusalem to warn its bishop against the poison of Origenism. Not succeeding in this, he with- drew to the solitude of Bethlehem, and con- ferred the order of priesthood on Paulinian, brother of St. Jerome, a violation of the canons which drew on him the censure of the diocesan