Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/174

* EPILEPSY. 150 EPILEPTIC COLONY. Lewis .-alls attention to the fact that leading ideas, delusional or otherwise, prevailing in the pie-paroxysmal stage, are likely to become opera- tive in conditions of post-epileptic automatism and during psychic equivalents. It is a hard task de whether an epileptic is accountable and should lie punished for crimes committed during chical manifestation, equivalent or post- epileptic. The epileptic will perform automatic- ally complex acts that have the very appearance of deliberate volition. The discovery of motive in an interparoxysmal complaint or threat is not proof of the responsibility of the patient for crime committed during the attack. A just disposal will be made of these criminals and of the malingerers for whom their legal ad- vocates enter a plea of transient insanity due to epilepsy, when they are promptly confined in a hospital under the eye of a competent alienist, that their inter-paroxysmal mental state may be studied, and thepre-paroxysmal and post-paroxys- mal stages of subsequent attacks may be observed. Study of the intervallary period will generally prove barren of result; rarely will it afford us evidence of a mind governed by delusions. Study of the conditions immediately antecedent and subsequent to the attacks will give us evidence as to the presence of genuine automatism, of un- controllable impulse, or of blind fury operating during reductions in consciousness. Epilepsy in the Lower Animals. Some of the lower animals are subject to epileptic fits. The disease is common in dogs, cats, and highly bred pigs. The creatures writhe with involuntary spasms, and are for the time without sight or hearing. Sometimes the muscles of the throat are so involved that fatal suffocation occurs. The attack is generally preceded by dullness, and lasts from ten to thirty minutes. It is generally trace- able to torpidity or irregularity of the bowels, worms, debility, or plethora. In dogs it is a fre- quent sequel to distemper. In cattle it usually occurs in connection with the engorgement of the firs! "r third stomach; they throw then violently about, bellowing loudly, but seldom die. It i- rare in horses, and differs from megrims, for which it is often mistaken, but in which there are no spasms. The treatment consists in freely opening the bowel-, removing worms if any arc present, enjoining bleeding and spare diet, if the patient's condition is high, and generous feeding and tonics where it is 1. w. The best pre- ventive- are carefully regulated diet, an occa- sional laxative, with a course of tonics, and espe- cially of arsenic. Good results may be obtained in the treatment of cattle by giving four drams of bromide of potash three time- daily Consult: Gowers, Diseases of il"- Vervous Sys- London, 1 ss l ) ; Lewis. A Textbi Mental Diseases (London. 1889); A Textbool on Nervous Diseases, edited by Dercum (Philadel- phia and New York, 11100).* EPILEP'TIC COL'ONY. An establishment from an asylum or a hospital for in thai it consists not of one buildii ..f buildings in which the 1 foi i reatment, but of a large farm, in which group- of epileptics live in cottages or in i' nil ( pend their i in workshops, i hi emenl bn i eni in previously hopelet i a the largest proportion of cures are secured in the colony system, with little drugging and with natu- ral and hygienic conditions of life. The first epi- leptic colony, (bat of Bethel, at Bielefeld, in the Prussian Province of Westphalia, was es- tablished with four patients. The celebrated pastor, Friederich von Bodelschwingh, first took charge of it in 1872. It has been marvelously successful. With its officers, physicians, nurses, and employees, and over 1000 epileptics, the colony contains over 3000 persons. The patients are about equally divided in num- ber between the sexes. About 8 per cent, are cured: about :1 per cent, are discharged im- proved; about 21 per cent, leave unimproved; about 20 per cent. die. About 61 per cent, of the cured are under 18 years of age. Only 47 out of over 5000 patients have been turned over to in- sane asylums. Several other colonies have been established in Germany; there is one in Zurich, Switzerland; one in Holland ; and one was established at La Force, near Lyons, France, by John Bost, a clergyman. At Chalfont Saint Peter, Eng- land, a farm of 135 acres was purchased in 1893 by the National Society for the Employment of Epileptics, and the first building was opened for patients in August, 1894. There are six houses, with accommodations for 66 men, 24 women, 24 girls, and 24 boys. England's second colony for epileptics was established at Warford, near Al- derley, Cheshire, in 1900, upon an estate of 400 acres. Detached buildings capable of holding 24 inmates have been erected. The Craig Colony of New York, at Sonyea, the most nearly complete and most extensive in this country, was informally opened for patients Feb- ruary 1, 1896, starting with 1900 acres of well- cultivated fields, fine orchards, and productive market-gardens, with about thirty buildings al- ready thereon; residences, barns, and shops, the latter used in broom-making, canning fruits and vegetables, etc. On the grounds are building-stone quarries, brick-clay deposits, and many acres of standing timber. A sawmill and a flouring-mill stand on a rapid stream, which divides the tract of land into halves. The property formerly was the site of a settlement of thrifty Shakers. It is the largest in use for this purpose in the world, and is ideal in situation and facilities. An ath- letic field has been built where the patients engage in bicycling, tennis, baseball, and track sports. There is a military company of boys and young men, which has regular drills. A band of about twenty pieces gives concerts from time to time. Instruction is given, at the schools, in reading, writing, letter-composition, language, arithmetic, drawing, kindergarten work, clay-modeling, and basket-weaving. There is also a (lass in manual training. The census, September 30, 1901, was as follows; 440 males, 303 females, total 743. During the previous fiscal year 1!IS males and 01 females wire admitted: the deaths numbered ,'iii; 12 were transferred to asylums as insane; and 80 were discharged. The net. gain for the year was 131. The death-rate for the year was le-s than 5 per cent. The per Capita cost of main- tenance lias iici rea-ed with the increase of popula- tion. With an average daily attendance of 251 in [897 98, the annual per capita cost was $300.02. In 1900-01, with an average daily attendance of 676 II, H was $164.42. The total cost of main- tenance was $130,641.45, which was reduced by