
Medicine in the 18th century:
Samuel Auguste A. D. Tissot (1728 - 1797):
Treatise on Epilepsy or the Falling Sickness (1771)"In order to be in a position to cure this disease, one must first take pains to examine whether there is any sympathetic cause which supports it, and what this could be; or whether it is an idiopathic one, that is to say whether it simply stems from an over-sensitivity of the brain. [...]
At last, valerian has fortunately become the favourite remedy of all sensible physicians. I am convinced that, if this does not have an effect, then it is because the malady is incurable."