Mesencephalic-thalamic relations in the mechanism of the experimental wave and spike complex in the cat.

It was known from ancient times that some men suffered from a disease that periodically threw them to the ground and caused a convulsion. The earliest mention of epilepsy of which we are now aware occurs in the Code of Hammurabi (2080 B.C.) in which may be found laws regulating the marriage of epileptic persona and the validity of their court testimony. Ancient Hebrew writings (2000 B.C.) found in the Talmud contain references to epilepsy in the precepts of the sanitary laws (Pirkner, 1929). It is understandable that the attention of the earliest observer of epilepsy should have been arrested by the prominent and awesome aspect of the generalized convulsion, and it is to this part or form of the disease that most consideration was given