The Significance of Vertigo

harmony without vertigo: only when equilibrium is affected do we experience that sensation. Under the influence of appropriate stimuli, especially certain movements, vertigo is normal, and the absence of it pathological. We are now concerned with pathological vertigo, occurring apart from an adequate cause. It is unfortunate that one word has to do duty for so many varieties of sensation : the feelings evoked by rectilinear movement, by falling, swaying or jogging the body, are essentially quite distinct from the very characteristic sequelae of turning, and a good deal of confusion exists in medical literature from the varied usage of vertigo to express here the latter sensation only, there the former also. We may recognise, then, two broad classes of giddiness :? (a) Dizziness, swimming in the head, a vague sense of impaired equilibrium. Feelings that the patient or