The Inheritance of Epilepsy

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Abstract
In 200 epileptics, family history shows the disease in 28%, as against probably under 10% in a control series from a hospital population. Family history of the disease is obtained somewhat more frequently in [female]than [male]. Family history showed early convulsions in 28% of 176 epileptics. Early convulsions were almost twice as common in epileptics with a family history of the disease as in those with none. The proportion of lst-born among epileptics is twice as high, and of 2nd-born children [female] as high again, as in the population from which the patients were drawn. It is suggested that the increased liability of lst-born children to receive cerebral injury at birth may increase the proportion of lst-born among epileptics. The incidence of insanity among the relatives of epileptics was no higher than in the general population. The facts are held to indicate that a predisposition, which in at least 28% of cases is inherited, is an etiological factor in epilepsy. Present knowledge is not sufficient to render practicable the application of Mendelian principles to the inheritance of epilepsy.

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