Nervous Attacks
Sources:
Papers On Health
What we call, for want of a better name, "nerve
force," or "nerve action," is at any one time a definite quantity. In
health it is distributed to all the sets of nerves equally, so that all
work in harmony. But if its distribution be altered in certain ways, we
find "fits" or "attacks" coming on. Action is greatly exaggerated in
one part, and as greatly lessened in another--hence violent movements
and complete unconsciousness co-exist. Children often have such fits.
Where they arise from indigestion as a result of bad food, the cure
is found in teaspoonfuls of hot water, and a hot sitz-bath coming up
over the bowels. Where bad blood causes the fits, poultices over the
kidneys will usually help greatly. (For fits of teething children,
see Teething.) See also Epilepsy.