This section is from the book "The Sushruta Samhita", by Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna. Also available from Amazon: The Sushruta Samhita.
The word "Smriti" signifies the faculty of past sense-perceptions and (the prefix) "Apa" denotes the privation (of any object or attribute). Hence, this disease (in which an individual loses the faculty of past cognitions) is termed Apasrnara (Epilepsy) and it turns fatal. 2.
Causes : - Excessive, inadequate and improper attention to the objects of the sense as well as to their actions, partaking of filthy, impure, incompatible and uncongenial articles of fare and regimen of conduct, repression of any natural urging of the body or aggravation of the Rajas and Tamas (nescience), or going in unto a woman in her menses, or indulgence in amorous fancies, fright, anxiety, anger, or grief, etc., leads to an aggravation of the bodily Doshas which in their turn affect the mind (Chetas) very greatly and give rise to Apasmara. 3.
The sense-carrying Srotas (channels) of the body overwhelmed by the concerted action of the deranged Doshas bring in a predominance of Rajas and Tamas (Nescience) causing the patient unconscious and forgetful of all past memories. He writhes in agony and throws his hands and legs in convulsive jerks with contracted eyes (D. R. tongue) and eye-brows. He gnashes his teeth, with foams at the mouth, etc., and falls to the ground with open eyes, the consciousness returning a short while after. The disease is called Apasmara which is classified into four distinct types - vis., Vataja, Pittaja, Kaphaja and Sannipataja. 4.
The throbbing of the heart, emptiness or lightness (of the chest i.e. a sense as if the external world is vanishing away fastly), perspiration, pensiveness, fainting, stupid appearance and sleeplessness are the symptoms, which are usually found to usher in an attack (of Apasmara). 5.
In the Vataja typ2 of Apasmara the patient fancies that a dark supernatural being is coming after him to seize his person and is frightened and faints in consequence with shivering grinding of the teeth i. e. lock-jaw, laboured breathing and foaming at the mouth. Fainting is excited by a terror of being seized by a yellow and fierce-looking being in the Pittaja type which is further marked by thirst, increased heat of the body, perspiration, fainting, mild tremor of the limbs and restlessness. 6- 7 .
Where the patient is excited by a fancied dread as if a supernatural being of white colour is coming to apprehend him, it is a case of the Kaphaja type which is moreover characterised by the exhibition of such symptoms as shivering, nausea, sleepiness, falling prostrate on the ground and vomiting of mucus. Pain in the heart, thirst and nausea are the specific characteristics of the three types respectively. But delirious talk and the making of indistinct and moaning sounds are present in all the types The specific features of all the three foregoing types manifest themselves in concert in a case of Sannipatika type. 8 - 10.
 
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