Cassii iatrosophistae naturales et medicinales quaestiones LXXXIIII, circa hominis naturam & morbos aliquot

IX. Why in head wounds so deep that the membrane of the brain, the guardian the meninges or dura mater, is also wounded, even if the afflicted seem to have escaped and the wounds have subsequently been led to a scar, does a convulsion sometimes supervene, such that they die? We will say that, since the brain naturally pulsates, it happens that the membrane placed around it is struck against neighboring bones from which fragments have been removed, and it ulcerates because of the striking. After ulceration has occurred, the sordid matter collected therein cannot transpire, both because the parts placed upon it have already coalesced with flesh, and because the internal scar is denser. Therefore, those impurities collected from the ulcer are carried to the principal parts of the brain and compress them, so much so that a convulsion follows, because the matter could not be dispersed on account of the hardness of the scar, which is flesh that is contrary to nature.