Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Heart, brain, blood, pneuma 131ventricle would not; 31 this maintains contact with the blood by means of aprocess of ‘evaporation’ and ‘radiation’.3 three approaches to epilepsyI will conclude by discussing an example of the way in which various presuppositionsabout body and mind and about the location of the mindplayed a part in the medical debate on the disease of epilepsy. As we haveseen before, the medical authors of the period we are discussing do notconsider the question of the seat of the mind an isolated issue, but a matterthat becomes relevant when treating diseases which, although they have asomatic cause like other diseases, also manifest themselves in psychic disorders.Of the four classic psychosomatic diseases, mania (a chronic disorder),phrenitis, melancholia and epilepsy, epilepsy was by far the most dreaded.It was also known as ‘the big disease’ or ‘the sacred disease’; possession bythe gods seemed the obvious explanation, but at the same time the physicalaspects of the disease were so prominent that there could be no doubt as toits pathological status (as opposed to mania and melancholia, which wereconsidered to manifest themselves in positive forms as well). 32The author of the Hippocratic writing On the Sacred Disease fiercelyopposes the view that epilepsy is sent by the gods and can only be curedby applying magic (incantations, rituals involving blood, etc.) [see chapter1 in this volume]. After a long philippic against those adhering to thisview he expounds his own theory. Epilepsy is the result of an accumulationof phlegm (phlegma) in the passages that divide themselves fromthe brain throughout the body and enable the distribution of the vitalpneuma (this air is indispensable for the functioning of the various organs).This accumulation is a result of insufficient prenatal or postnatal ‘purification’(katharsis) of phlegm in the brain – according to the author this isa hereditary phenomenon. This obstruction can occur in different placesin the body and, accordingly, manifest itself in different symptoms. Nearthe heart, it will result in palpitations and asthmatic complaints; in theabdomen, in diarrhoea; in the ‘veins’, in foaming at the mouth, grindingof teeth, clenched hands, rolling eyes, disorders in consciousness, and alack of bowel control. This way the author explains the various symptomsthat can present themselves during epileptic fits and which he describes inconsiderable detail in chapter 7 of the treatise.31 On this experiment see Harris (1973) 93ff.32 The classical, still very useful monograph on the history of epilepsy is Temkin (1971). Another usefulbook is Stol (1993). See also the discussion in ch. 1 above.