The relation between the movements of the eyes and the movements of the head: : being the fourth Robert Boyle Lecture delivered before the Oxford University Junior Scientific Club on Monday, May 13, 1895, / by Alexander Crum Brown.

Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The relation between the movements of the eyes and the movements of the head: : being the fourth Robert Boyle Lecture delivered before the Oxford University Junior Scientific Club on Monday, May 13, 1895, / by Alexander Crum Brown. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    The close anatomical relation of the organ of hearing and the organ of the sense of rotation has this effect, that imperfect development or pathological injury of the one is usually associated with similar defect in the other. And experiments on deaf mutes have shown that a large proportion of them are defective in the sense of rotation. This is shown by the absence of the normal jerking of the eye-balls when they are rotated, and by a perceptible insecurity in their gait. They do not reel as drunken men do; just as blind men find their way about much better than we could do if our eyes were bandaged up, they have learned to get on fairly well with the help of experience and their other senses. I am not sure whether in this account of the sense of rotation, of its organ, and of the use of it, I have carried all my hearers with me, and convinced you of the real existence and real practical use of this sense. I hope, however, I have made it clear that the subject is worthy of attention, and that we have here matter for the careful consideration of Physicists, Physiologists, and Psychologists.