At Harvard University Dr. W. G. Lennox and Dr. and Mrs, Frederic Gibbs have been using brain waves to study epilepsy, with results that are of the highest eugenic importtance, and this because it is now possible to detect carriers of epilepsy, that is, persons who may never have a seizure but who may pass a potential disability on to their children, states the New York "Times."
The brain waves were discovered by Prof. Hans Berger of Jena, and described by him in 1929. Since then many American hospitals and laboratories have been equipped with what are in effect modified radio instruments and which detect minute "action currents" that come from the cortex or "bark" of the brain, Small metal disks. are pasted on the head and connected by wires with the instrument. Electrical impulses or "action currents" appear on a paper tape in the form of waves. Epileptics send out waves which are very different from those of normal persons and are easily identified by an expert.
About 600,000 Americans are epileptics who are subject to fits, blackouts that may last seconds or minutes, or such psychic disturbances as loss of memory. The evidence is strong that epilepsy runs in families. The worst cases may have several hundred fits during the course of a year. Going to school or holding a job is impossible for such unfortunates.
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