But if the promulgator of a new idea cannot hope for any great pleasure
from its publication, yet the critical process which his views undergo
is extremely helpful to the subject-matter of them. All the defects
which necessarily adhere to the new view are gradually discovered and
eliminated. Over-rating and exaggeration give way to more sober
estimates. And so it came about that it was found unpermissible to
attribute all functions of orientation exclusively to the labyrinth. In
these critical labors Delage, Aubert, Breuer, Ewald, and others have
rendered distinguished services. It can also not fail to happen that
fresh facts become known in this process which could have been predicted
by the new view, which actually were predicted in part, and which
consequently furnish a support for the new view. Breuer and Ewald
succeeded in electrically and mechanically exciting the labyrinth, and
even single parts of the labyrinth, and thus in producing the movements
that belong to such stimuli. It was shown that when the semi-circular
canals were absent vertigo could not be produced, when the entire
labyrinth was removed the orientation of the head was no longer
possible, that without the labyrinth galvanic vertigo could not be
induced. I myself constructed as early as 1875 an apparatus for
observing animals in rotation, which was subsequently reinvented in
various forms and has since received the name of "cyclostat."[103] In
experiments with the most varied kinds of animals it was shown that, for
example, the larvæ of frogs are not subject to vertigo until their
semi-circular canals which at the start are wanting are developed (K.
Schäfer). A large percentage of the deaf and dumb are afflicted with
grave affections of the labyrinth. The American psychologist, William
James, has made whirling experiments with many deaf and dumb subjects,
and in a large number of them found that susceptibility to giddiness is
wanting. He also found that many deaf and dumb people on being ducked
under water, whereby they lose their weight and consequently have no
longer the full assistance of their muscular sense, utterly lose their
sense of position in space, do not know which is up and which is down,
and are thrown into the greatest consternation,--results which do not
occur in normal men. Such facts are convincing proof that we do not
orientate ourselves entirely by means of the labyrinth, important as it
is for us. Dr. Kreidl has made experiments similar to those of James and
found that not only is vertigo absent in deaf and dumb people when
whirled about, but that also the reflex movements of the eyes which are
normally induced by the labyrinth are wanting. Finally, Dr. Pollak has
found that galvanic vertigo does not exist in a large percentage of the
deaf and dumb. Neither the jerking movements nor the uniform movements
of the eyes were observed which normal human beings exhibit in the
Ritter and Purkinje experiment.
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