The Narcolepsies

The problems of narcolepsy are still matters of controversy. Gélineau,¹in 1880, and Redlich²and Adie,³in 1926, thought that they were dealing with a disease entity, with a disease per se. Gélineau¹made a significant statement when he published his famous case, starting his paper with the now historic and much quoted phrase: "I propose to give the name of narcolepsy (somnolence and to seize) to a rare neurosis, or one little known up to the present time, characterized by an imperious desire to sleep, sudden and of short duration, reproducing itself at intervals more or less closely related." This name has been accepted by various workers, with the result that all kinds of clinical manifestations appeared under Gélineau'snomen morbi. In 1902, Löwenfeld⁴objected to the loose application of the term narcolepsy and insisted that the term should refer to cases characterized not