Falling Sickness

Owsei Temkin, M.D. (1902-2002), was William H. Welch Professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University. His books include The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology, Soranus' Gynecology (translation), and Hippocrates in a World of Pagans and Christians.

• Preface to Second EditionPreface to First EditionPart I: AntiquityChapter 1. Epilepsy: The Sacred DiseaseChapter 2. Epilepsy in Ancient Medical SciencePart II: The Middle AgesChapter 3. Epilepsy: The Falling SicknessChapter 4. Medieval Medical TheoriesPart III: The RenaissanceChapter 5. Theological, Philosophical, and Social AspectsChapter 6. Broadening Experience and Changing TheoryPart IV: The Great Systems and the Period of EnlightenmentChapter 7. The Great Systems Chapter 8. The EnlightenmentPart V: The Nineteenth Century (1800–1861)Chapter 9. First Period: 1800–1833Chapter 10. Second Period: 1833–1861Part VI: The Nineteenth Century – The Age of Hughlings JacksonChapter 11. Jackson's ForerunnersChapter 12. John Hughlings JacksonChapter 13. The End of the Falling Sickness?EpilogueAppendix IAppendix IIBibliographyIndex of Personal NamesIndex of Subjects

A JAMA reviewer hailed the 1945 first edition of The Falling Sickness as a reference work with 'no historical rival' which 'occupies a seperate shelf in the reviewer's Library of Fame.' A revised second edition, published in 1971, increased the bibliography from a hefty 706 references to a weighty 1120. The number of footnotes, many in French, Latin, or Greek, multiplied from 1721 to 2073! The review of the second edition deemed Tempkin's intensely researched and well-organized historical work 'magnificient'... [The 1994 publication is] a facinating study of the history of one of the world's most intriguing maladies. -- Andrew N. WilnerM.D Journal of the American Medical Association The definitive account... Detailed, meticulous, and accurate... A thoroughly admirable and informative introduction to our knowledge of epilepsy in the Western world from antiquity to the early twentieth century. American Scientist