Jonas believes the incidence of microscopic cerebral scars (temporal lobe, rhinencephalon, thalamus) due to minimal encephalitis following childhood diseases or trauma is far greater than is generally recognized, and that these scars produce masked forms of epileptic discharge ('ictal and subictal states'). Following two observations of what seemed to be purely psychogenic disorders, but proved to be epilepsy, he studied one hundred sixty-two psychiatric patients over a period of twelve years. He concluded that one hundred twelve gave satisfactory clinical evidence of 'spontaneous firings', i.e., epileptic electrical discharges producing a great variety of clinical psychiatric states. These include hysteria; bizarre forms of hypochondria; sharply defined somatic symptoms with minimal or