In ancient times, people didn’t understand diseases and what caused them. So they often behaved very cruelly to victims of certain diseases. People who had epilepsy in the Middle Ages were thought of as lunatics, or bewitched! Yet did you know that many great people and many geniuses were epileptic? Among them were the Duke of Wellington, Richard Wagner, Vincent van Gogh, and Louis Hector Berlioz.

Epilepsy is a disease of the nervous system. People with epilepsy have sudden spells during which they have spasms called convulsions after which they may become unconscious or fall into a coma.