In those days they didn't know what caused epilepsy. Very embarassing to be at a party and all of a sudden a family member goes into convulsions! so they packed them off, not knowing what else to do with them. My 5th Great grandfather was put in jail for debt in 1733, and for 267 years the family told the story of how he died from a fall from a load of hay in 1730! And my uncle died from "an accident while cleaning his gun." How many times have you hear that one? Anne Wiegle -----Original Message----- From: Dora Smith [SMTP:tiggernut_48@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 10:58 PM To: PACHESTE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [PACHESTE] Conceptions of mental illnesses and other socially unacceptable things, Karen: I am interested in what in blazes went on in my family's minds. My great uncle, Lawrence Smith, who had epilepsy, and died suddenly at age 53 of "apoplexy", aka, influenza, as my father was told, very suddenly three weeks after his brother died of cancer, was born in 1873, and died in 1925. He was a doctor. But my father had no idea he had epilepsy. I learned it from the state medical society, who apparently were aware of it, when trying to track his family and his death, which were mysteriously hushed up. And I think that if I am able to get his daughter's 1972 death certificate, she died in a tiny village in the middle of Pennsylvania, it may not say that she committed suicide, which she did. The whole thing was hushed up. I was lucky enough to talk to a good friend of her friend who found her body. Would my great uncle's family have been likely to have reacted to his epilepsy as if he was mentally ill? My father's people had a strange streak. Forgot he was half German, for instance. It got changed to French. Yours, Dora --- Booboopies@aol.com wrote: > Dear Dotty and Dora, > > Epilepsy was considered a mental illness in the > 19th century. Mental illness was understood, > but treatment for it was less than optimal. The > fact that the true organic nature of epilespy > was not clearly understood until the second > half of the 20th century. > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________