a few moments.

Frequent _petit mal_ impairs the intellect more than _grand mal_, for
convulsions calm the patient as a good cry calms hysterical people. After a
number of attacks of _petit mal, grand mal_ usually supervenes, and most
epileptics suffer from attacks of both types. Some precocious, perverse
children are victims of unrecognized _petit mal_, and when pushed at school
run grave risks of developing symptoms of true epilepsy. The "Little Evil"
is a serious complaint.

* * * * *

CHAPTER II

RARER TYPES OF EPILEPSY

If it be true that: "One half the world does not know how the other
half lives", how true also is it that one half the world does not know,
and does not care, what the other half suffers.

Epilepsy shows every gradation, from symptoms which cannot be described in
language, to severe _grand mal_. Gowers says: "The elements of an epileptic
attack may be extended, and thereby be made less intense, though not less
distressing. If we conceive a minor attack that is extended, and its
elements protracted, with no loss of consciousness, it would be so
different that its epileptic nature would not be suspected. Swiftness is an
essential element of ordinary epilepsy, but this does not prevent the
possibility of deliberation."

In Serial Epilepsy, a number of attacks of _grand mal_ follow one another,