While studying a group of epileptic patients we noticed during the convulsive seizure and for some time afterward a marked rise in the level of the inorganic acid-soluble phosphorus of the blood serum. Since it had been stated in publications concerned with epilepsy1 that the inorganic phosphorus content of the serum of epileptic patients is within the normal range, we decided to investigate the problem in detail, both with hospital patients and with animals.
A specimen of blood was drawn from each patient before breakfast, during the interval between seizures. It was centrifugated after from one to two hours, and the serum was examined immediately to determine the fractions of phosphorus (Fiske and Subarrow method), of calcium (Halverson and Bergheim method) and of nonprotein nitrogen (nesslerization). We made a similar examination with a number of patients during the aura preceding the convulsive seizure, during the attack itself and at intervals