title: ["El Informe Médico-Moral de la Penosissima y Rigorosa Enfermedad de la Epilepsi" (1763) by the Spaniard Pedro de Horta, the 1st American treatise on epilepsy].
abstract: In 1763 Pedro de Horta was requested by the prioress of the convent of San Gerónimo in Puebla de los Angeles to draw up a report to establish whether the epidemic of queer turns, violent shaking or epilepsy which affected the novices was caused by the Devil or was due to natural causes. Pedro de Horta, a doctor qualified in Mexico, methodically and thoroughly prepared an extensive monographic treatise on the illness which included all that was known at the time. The report showed the fierce debates provoked by the subject of epilepsy in the eighteenth century regarding whether it was of natural or supernatural origin. It also contained detailed accounts of the episodes, their causes and treatment. The Spaniard Pedro de Horta should be justly recognized as the first American epileptologist.
authors.affiliation: Sección de Neurología, Hospital Universitario Príncipe de Asturias, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, España.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: García-Albea
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002410:Catholicism / Q000266:history; D002648:Child; D003244:Consciousness Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D006115:Greece; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D049711:History, Modern 1601-; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000175:diagnosis; D008093:Literature, Modern / Q000266:history*; D008800:Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D018599:Witchcraft / Q000266:history
vernacular_title: "El Informe Médico-Moral de la Penosissima y Rigorosa Enfermedad de la Epilepsia" (1763), del hispano Pedro de Horta, el primer tratado americano sobre la epilepsia.