One hundred thirty four patients with epilepsy begining at the age of 30 years or more, from a group of 1.217 epileptics were studied. All the patients have normal neurologic examination and no signs of intracranial hypertension. The cases were studied regarding the antecedents and were submited to EEG (all cases) and CSF examination (129 cases). The group with late epilepsy was studied in relation to the epilepsies in general, regarding the EEG, the disease duration, the frequency of seizures and the evolution with drug treatment. The results allow the authors to draw the following conclusions: 1) the hereditary character and the cranial traumatisms predominate in the antecedents; 2) the convulsive seizures were the most frequent symptom; 3) the duration of the disease was shorter in the late epilepsy group; 4) in the late onset epilepsy group a low incidence of severe cases was found showing relative benignity of epilepsies when the disease begins after 30 years age; 5) the CSF examination was abnormal in more patients than in the epilepsies in general; 6) in the late epilepsy group a great number of cases with normal EEG and a small number with diffuse EEG alteration in relation to the epilepsies in general was found; 7) the late onset of epilepsy has a benign course, in the group of cases considered.