have epileptic seizures several
times in a day, and who nevertheless remained a fortnight or more in the
institution without any attack coming on. The disorder, however, was not
cured, but only kept in check by the gentle rule to which the little
ones were subjected. The order goes for much in these cases; the novelty
goes for something too, for almost invariably I have found that after a
time the apparent improvement becomes less marked, and though they
continued better than when they first came to the hospital, the children
were still epileptic; the advance of the disease had been retarded, but
its progress had not been arrested. The quiet then which suits the
epileptic, is not the quiet of listless, apathetic idleness, but the
judicious alternation of tranquil occupation and amusement. The mind
must not be left to slumber from the apprehension of work bringing on a
fit, but the work must, as far as possible, be such as to interest the
child. In the occupations of epileptics therefore, pursuits which not
merely employ the mental faculties, but also give work to the hands,
such as gardening, carpentering, or the tending of animals, are
specially to be recommended; and if by these the mind can be kept awake,
the grand object of teaching is answered, and backwardness in reading,
writing, or those kinds of knowledge which other children at the same
age have acquired, is of very little moment. Many epileptics have an
indistinct articulation, and almost all have a slouching gait, and an
awkward manner. The former can often be corrected to a considerable
degree by teaching the child simple chants, which are almost always
easily acquired, and practised with pleasure. The latter may be
rectified by drilling, not carried out into tedious minutiae, but limited
to simple movements; and the irksomeness of drill is almost completely
done away with by music, while I believe that the accustoming a child to
the strict control and regulation of all its voluntary movements is of
very great importance indeed as a curative agent.

It is difficult to carry out these minute precautions on which so much
depends in the home with other children of the same family. It is
therefore, I believe, better for the child, painful though it is to the
parents, that he should be placed under the care of some competent
person who will devote the whole of his time to the care of the patient.

=St. Vitus's Dance.=--A state of unconsciousness, accompanied wi