In health matters, prevention is nine points of the law.

Some patients are obsessed by a peculiar sensation (the "aura") just before
a fit. This warning takes many forms, the two most common being a "sinking"
or feeling of distress in the stomach, and giddiness. The character of the
aura is very variable--terror, excitement, numbness, tingling,
irritability, twitching, a feeling of something passing up from the toes to
the head, delusions of sight, smell, taste, or hearing (ringing, or
buzzing, etc.), palpitation, throbbing in the head, an impulse to run or
spin around--any of these may warn a victim that a fit is at hand. Some
patients "lose themselves" and make curious mistakes in talking.

The warning is nearly always the same each time with the same patient, and
is more common in mild than in severe cases. Rarely, the attack does not go
beyond this stage.

When the patient becomes conscious of the aura he should sit in a large
chair, or lie down on the floor, well away from fire, and from anything
that can be capsized. He must never try to go upstairs to bed. Some one
should draw the blind, as light is irritating.

If the warning lasts some minutes, the patient should carry with him, a
bottle of uncoated one-hundredth-grain tabloids of

Nitroglycerin, replacing the screw cap with a cork, so that they can
quickly be extracted. When the warning occurs, one--or two--should be
taken, and the head bent forward. The arteries are dilated, the
blood-pressure thus lowered, and the attack _may_ be averted.

The use of nitroglycerin is based on the theory that seizures are caused by