H 2 is given because it is not typical; and about one half of the film
itself is reproduced in Fig. 5 (Plate II). It will be seen that at four
points there intervened between slow movements (toward the right) a
rapid one that was also toward the right. This is the only record in
which such a thing happened: and its explanation is problematical. With
the subjects C and H, and only very rarely with these, a rapid movement
sometimes took the place of a slow one, that is, occurred in the same
direction as the slow movements (_e. g._, Table II, C 3). And a trifle
more often, yet very seldom, a rapid movement was relatively slow (_e.
g._, _ibid._). With every subject there are a few cases in which the
eyes stood still for a small part of a second (_e. g._, _ibid._), and
these moments of rest seem to come after a rapid or a slow movement
indifferently.
McAllister[15] and others have shown that the eyes are seldom at rest
even when voluntary fixation is attempted, and these anomalies in the
nystagmiform series may well be the result of such random factors,
which instead of being always inhibited by the afferent impulses from
the semicircular canals, which govern the nystagmus, operate along with
these latter, and sometimes even inhibit them. With the exception of
these anomalies, the movements recorded in the photographs confirm the
observations of Purkinje, Mach, Breuer, Delage, and other investigators.
In conclusion, the sensations of vertigo and of nausea seem not to be
essentially connected with the nystagmus. Several subjects were so
disagreeably affected by a preliminary rotation that it seemed best not
to continue the experiment with them. With those, however, whose eyes
were photographed, while they experienced a mild degree of vertigo and
nausea during and after the first few rotations, these sensations soon
wore off with further practice, while so far as could be observed their
eye-movements were as ample and rapid as at first. The introspection
of these subjects was that after the rotation the body seemed at rest
and the stomach quite settled, while the visual field alone whirled
rapidly in the direction opposite to that of the previous rotation.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: E. Mach: Sitzungsb. d. k. Akad. d. Wissensch., Wien, 1874.]
[Footnote 3: A. Crum Brown: Proceedings of the Royal Soc., Edinburgh,
1874.]
[Footnote 4: J. Breuer: Med. Jahrb., Wien, 1874-75.]
[Footnote 5: W. Peters: Arch. f. d. ges. Psych., vol. 5, p. 42, 1905.]
[Footnote 6: W. Nagel: Handbuch d. Physiol. des Menschen, vol. 3, p.
762, 1905.]
[Footnote 7: R. Dodge: Amer. Jour. of Physiol., vol. 8, p. 317, 1903.]
[Footnote 8: _Ibid._ p. 327.]
[Footnote 9: A. Crum Brown: Proceedings of the Royal Soc., Edinburgh,
1895.]
[Footnote 10: W. Nagel: Zeitsch. f. Psych. u. Physiol., vol. 12, p.
331, 1896.]
[Footnote 11: Yves Delage: Arch. de Zoöl. expér. et générale, vol. 1,
1903.]
[Footnote 12: R. P. Angier: Zeitsch. f. Psych. u. Physiol., vol. 37, p.
235, 1905.]
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