"It would have been better if he had followed your advice. You say it is consistent with epilepsy for him to have no recollection of what occurred during this seizure in the hotel breakfast room. What would a man's condition of mind be if, during an attack of petit mal, he committed an act of violence, say murder, for example?"
"The mind is generally a complete blank. Sometimes there is a confused sense of something, but the patient has no recollection of what has occurred, in my experience."
"In this case the prisoner is charged with murder. Could he have committed this offence during another attack of furor epilepticus and recollect nothing about it afterwards? Is that consistent?"
"Yes, quite consistent," replied the witness.
"Is epilepsy an hereditary disease?"
"Yes."
"And if both parents, or one of them, suffered from epilepsy, would there be a great risk of the children suffering from it?"
"Every risk in the case of both persons being affected; some probability in the case of one."
"What do you think would be the effect of shell-shock on a person born of one epileptic parent?"
"It would probably aggravate a tendency to epilepsy, by lowering the general health."