L'Histoire du “Grand Mal”Épileptique

Abstract: Historical documents on epilepsy, especially on “grand mal” seizure, are mentioned in a chronological order. Among medical writings in the Greco-Roman antiquity, texts of Hippocrates, Celsus, Aretaeus and Galenus are cited and reviewed critically. Their descriptions of major symptoms are to be highly estimated. In the Middle Ages, Galenic tripartition of epilepsy (Epilepsia, Analepsia, Catalepsia) was popular. Platearius divided epilepsy into two forms: epilepsia maior and minor. Not only medical, but also theological and laic conceptions of this period are described. Paraceleus, a representative figure in the Renaissance, developed a unique epileptology in the light of his “Weltanschauung”: Macrocosmos-Microcosmos correspondence, Principle of the three Substances (Sulphur, Mercurius, Sal). In the eighteenth century, de Gorter distinguished clearly “tonic” and “clonic” convulsions.