“The Epilepsies”: Kinnier Wilson's landmark epileptology

Kinnier Wilson, better known for his eponymous disease, in fact devoted much of his career to the study of epilepsy. In his long campaign to alter the general perception of epilepsy, he spent much time and effort decrying the use of “epilepsy” as a single disease, pleading for individual consideration for its sufferers. In addition, he undertook an extensive reconsideration of many of the basic principles of his mentor and friend the great John Hughlings Jackson. Eventually his status as the European expert in epilepsy earned him the signal honour of authorship (in English) of the important chapter entitled “The Epilepsies” in the 1935 flagship German language textbook of neurology that appeared immediately prior to the advent of the EEG. This chapter and the one in his posthumously published textbook of 1940 are landmarks of epileptology of that era.