Abstract
IN a recent paper on this subject (Med. Press and Circ., 1, 154; 1943) Dr. J. D. Rolleston directs attention to the large number of synonyms for epilepsy, many of which are popular terms, alike in Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, and Bavaria in recent times. The English term 'falling evil' or 'falling sickness', which corresponded to the Latin morbus caducus, was for a long time prevalent but has now become obsolete. The chief folk-lore cause for epilepsy, which is still held by primitive races, was demoniac possession. Many examples of this belief have been found not only in the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian texts and the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, the Bible and the Talmud, but also in the West Indies, West Africa, Patagonia, Siberia, India, Ceylon, China and elsewhere (Tylor and Frazer). Another factor in the folk-lore causation of epilepsy was an astrological origin and the moon in particular. Moreover, the state of the moon was responsible in popular estimation not only for the occurrence of epilepsy but also for the efficiency of treatment.
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Folk-Lore of Epilepsy. Nature 151, 556 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151556c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151556c0