falling sickness

noun

falling sickness

First recorded in 1520–30

The parents of a maid who suffered severely from the falling sickness applied to him, on one occasion, for a cure.

But when shaking him and roaring at him failed to rouse him, I knew well it was the falling sickness.

Lupton says: "A piece of child's navel-string borne in a ring is good against falling sickness."

It was a sickness, I believe, like the falling-sickness that comes to old men; and in time I grew better and dreamed no more.

These rings were supposed to cure cramp and the "falling sickness."

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