La epilepsia en el Renacimiento español. La obra del alcalaíno Pérez Cascales

Abstract

During the Renaissance, the University of Alcalá de Henares represented the most best of Spanish medical humanism. A return to the classics after mediaeval religious obscurantism meant a 'modern' spirit of reconsideration of the major neurological disorders. In 1611 Francisco Pérez Cascales, trained at this university, wrote the first great Spanish treatise on paediatrics, Liber de affectionibus puerorum, which included a long chapter on epilepsy (alferecía). The author, considered to be a 'Hippocratic galenist' critically reviewed, with data from empirical observations, the Greek theory of humours. Following the Galenic tradition, he distinguished three types of epilepsy: primary or originating in the brain, and by 'consensus' (originating in another region but with secondary cerebral involvement) either of the stomach or other parts of the body. The work of Pérez Cascales is one of the most complete contributions to the under understanding of epilepsy at his time.