The medical-moral account on epilepsy by Pedro de Horta: a historical review.

We bring to reader's attention the book Medical-Moral Account of the Most Troublesome and Rigorous Illness of Epilepsy, written in 1754 by the Mexican physician Pedro de Horta. This book is the earliest text on epilepsy written in the New World. We examine Pedro de Horta's medical and religious concepts of epilepsy and analyze concepts of epilepsy in Hispanic communities during the eighteenth century.