Epilepsy is a  common chronic neurological disorder that is characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. These seizures are transient signs or symptoms due to abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain.  About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy at any one time and it  was thus considered a dreaded disease.

At the time attack there may be  seizure of the  patient’ muscles through out the body and  he falls down to the ground with temporary loss of consciousness. Froth comes out of his mouth. The patient is dazed, feels ill and has marked headache. It lefts to himself, soon he sleeps for some hours.  In some cases it is characterized by jerking in the hand and face on the side opposite the brain activity; and there are some  in which there may be localized convulsion with no loss of consciousness, as well as incoherent speech and various involuntary movements of the body.

The diagnosis of epilepsy requires the presence of recurrent, unprovoked seizures; accordingly, it is usually made based on the medical history. EEG, brain MRI, SPECT, PET, and magnetoence- phalography may be useful to discover an etiology for the epilepsy, discover the affected brain region, or classify the epileptic syndrome. Long-term video EEG monitoring for epilepsy is the gold standard for diagnosis, but it is not routinely employed owing to its high cost, low availability & inconvenience.

Standard treatment of epilepsy is with anticonvulsive drugs. It requires a careful analysis of seizure motor activity.  Some cases of childhood epilepsy have been successfully treated with surgery or a very high-fat “ketogenic” diet. First aid, such as cushioning the head, is used to prevent the person from self-inflicted injuries during seizures. With proper medication, most epileptics live normal lives. Repeated seizures that lead to unconsciousness, however, appear to be associated with damage to the hippocampus in the brain and sudden unexpected death.

How this dreaded disease was discovered by a great physician, there is a interesting incident  related to a parrot’s  mimics.

 In epilepsy the  Laryngeal muscles also get spasm, resulting in a shrill sound during the attack. This is known as epileptic cry. A parrot sitting on a tree adjacent to the medical ward mimicked the sound and produced the same type of cry simulating the onset of the disease.  Patients after getting adequate treatment got relief from the disease. Before being discharged, while still in the ward, the parrot’s sound confused the treating physicians and staff as if the disease is relapsed. They all took it as the cry of the patient. In fact, it was not his cry  but an imitating voice of a parrot.  Surprisingly they could not find the source of the sound.  Hence, in spite of  the patient’s  well recovery his discharge was postponed.

One physician determined to discover the source and the cause. He marked that the sound was only coming during the night fall after the darkness descended. So he thought of perusing  the sound during night. He spent many sleepless nights to reach at the conclusion. He climbed a tree densely thick with foliage so that he will not be noticed from outside. He took all precautions not to make any sound lest the source  might be disturbed.

At last, he found that a parrot  came to the tree after night fall and started  producing sound that mimicked the cry  that epileptic patients create during the attack. He then tried not to allow the bird to sit on the tree close to the patients’ ward. This he did not for one night but consecutively for several nights. As a result the bird’s mimicry could not be audible to the ward any more and the worst confusion was over.

After this source was eliminated physicians and the treating staff breathed a sigh of relief. The entire credit of eliminating the confusion from the mind of the physicians and treating staff  was attributed to the physician who spent many sleepless nights to reach at the destination.

The physician was a great scientist of his time. His name is John Hughlings Jackson.  He was  the first to recognize the pattern of the disease epilepsy. He  descri- bed that  epilepsy is associated with localized convulsive seizures. According to his name the ailment is known as ‘Jacksonian Epilepsy’.

 Hughlings Jackson was an English physician who pioneered the development of neurology as a medical specialty.  He has been called the “father of English neurology.” He was born on  4th March in the year 1835 at Providence Green, Green Hammerton, Yorkshire of England. Jackson made a number of scientific discoveries in several areas of higher nervous activity and language, and contributed greatly to the study of various types of epilepsy. Hence, he is best remembered for his seminal contributions to the diagnosis and understanding of epilepsy in all its forms and complexities.  This great neurologist passed away in October 7, 1911.