...As one that falls,
He knows not how, by force demoniac dragg'd
To earth, and through obstruction fettering up
In chains invisible the powers of Man;
Who, risen from his trance, gazeth around
Bewilder'd with the monstrous agony
He hath indured, and, wildly staring, sighs:
..."

In a few hours he wakes, with headache and mental confusion, not knowing he
has been ill until told, and having no recollection of events just
preceding the seizure, until reminded of them when they are slowly, and
with painful effort, brought to mind. He is exhausted, and often vomits. In
severe cases he may be deaf, dumb, blind, or paralysed for some hours,
while purple spots (the result of internal hemorrhage) may appear on the
head and neck. Victims often pass large quantities of colourless urine
after an attack, and, as a rule, are quite well again within twenty-four
hours.

This is the usual type, but seizures vary in different patients, and in the
same sufferer at different times. The cry and the biting of the tongue may
be absent, the first spasm brief, and the convulsions mild. Epilepsy of all
kinds is characterized by an _alteration_ (not necessarily a _loss_) of
consciousness, followed by loss of memory for events that occurred during
the time that alteration of consciousness lasted.

Attacks may occur by day only, by day and by night, or by night only,
though in so-called nocturnal epilepsy, it is _sleep_ and not night that
induces the fit, for night-workers have fits when they go to sleep during
the day.

Victims of nocturnal epilepsy may not be awakened by the seizure, but pass
into deeper sleep. Intermittent wetting of the bed, occasional temporary
mental stupor in the morning, irritability, temporary but well-marked
lapses of memory, sleep-walking, and causeless outbursts of ungovernable
temper all suggest nocturnal epilepsy.

Such a victim awakes confused, but imputes his mental sluggishness to a
hearty supper or "a bad night". A swollen tongue, blood-stained pillow, and
urinated bed arouse suspicion as to the real cause, suspicion which is
confirmed by a seizure during the day. He is more fortunate (if such a term
can rightly be used of any sufferer from this malady) than his fellow
victim whose attacks occur during the day, often under circumstances which,
to a sensitive nature, are very mortifying.

Epileptic attacks are of every degree of violence, varying from a moment's
unconsciousness, from which t