degree of frequency, too, is known, from one attack in a lifetime, down
through one in a year, a month, a week, or a day; several in the same
periods, to _hundreds_ in four-and-twenty hours.

PETIT MAL ("_Little Evil_")

This is incomplete _grand mal_, the starting stages only of a fit, recovery
occurring before convulsions.

_Petit mal_ often occurs in people who do not suffer from _grand mal_, the
symptoms consisting of a loss of consciousness for _a few seconds_, the
seizure being so brief that the victim never realizes he has been
unconscious. He suddenly stops what he is doing, turns pale, and his eyes
become fixed in a glassy stare. He may give a slight jerk, sway, and make
some slight sound, smack his lips, try to speak, or moan. He recovers with
a start, and is confused, the attack usually being over ere he has had time
to fall.

If talking when attacked, he hesitates, stares in an absent-minded manner,
and then completes his interrupted sentence, unaware that he has acted
strangely. Whatever act he is engaged in is interrupted for a second or
two, and then resumed.

A mild type of _petit mal_ consists of a temporary _blurring_ of
consciousness, with muscular weakness. The victim drops what he is holding,
and is conscious of a strange, extremely unpleasant sensation, a sensation
which he is usually quite unable to describe to anyone else. The view in
front is clear, he understands what it is--a house here, a tree there, and
so on--yet he does not _grasp_ the vista as usual. Other victims have short
spells of giddiness, while some are unable to realize "where they are" for