GIDDINESS. 301 



In addition to these measures it will be necessary to attend to the digestion and 

 general health. Small doses of blue-pill are sometimes useful ; it seems to increase 

 the quantity of bile, and at the same time to render it more healthy, and certainly 

 it improves in a striking manner the general health. 



GATHERINGS. (See DOMESTIC SURGERY.) 



GIDDINESS. 



Giddiness or vertigo, as it is technically called, occurs in two different forms : in 

 one the patient feels giddy, but objects about him remain stationary ; in the other 

 external objects assume various abnormal positions for example, articles of furniture 

 in the room, or the patterns on the paper, seem to chase each other round the 

 apartment, or in rare cases the vehicles in the street appear upside down, or the 

 pavement undulates or feels elastic. The patient on attempting to walk sways from 

 side to side, and can preserve his balance only by a strong effort of the will. There 

 is a perpetual fear of falling down, and of coming in contact with other people or 

 surrounding objects. In slight cases vertigo occurs only on movement ; in severe 

 ones when at rest also, and even during sleep. 



The sufferer from giddiness often experiences other anomalous and distressing 

 sensations. Sometimes he sees only halves of things, or everything may seem 

 double. One woman assured us that she always saw two cabs or two omnibuses in 

 the street instead of one. The images were so distinct that she was often unable to 

 distinguish the real from the imaginary. This was inconvenient, for she sometimes 

 hailed the wrong omnibus by mistake. She said that if she were going up a hill, 

 and a cart were in front of her, she saw a long line of them. This patient was some- 

 what prone to exaggeration, but we have no doubt that her statements were in the 

 main correct. Sometimes this double vision is a precursor of paralysis. We are 

 told of a sportsman who one day, when out shooting, disputed with his gamekeeper 

 as to the number of dogs they had in the field. He asked him how he came to 

 bring so many as eight with him. The servant assured him that there were but 

 four, and then the gentleman became at once aware of his condition, mounted his 

 horse, and rode home. He had not been long in the house when he was attacked 

 with apoplexy, and died. This, of course, is an extreme case. Some people who are 

 subject to vertigo are also deaf, whilst in others the hearing is abnormally sensitive. 

 With some the noise of passing vehicles assumes the intensity of thunder, whilst 

 with others ordinarily loud sounds appear clear, but soft and distant. Sometimes 

 in addition to the giddiness there is singing in the ears, it may be low like the 

 hissing of a tea-kettle or loud like the working of machinery, or perhaps rumbling 

 like the passing of a distant train. These noises may be always present more or 

 less, but usually they are loudest during an attack of giddiness. Vertigo may be 

 due to brain disease, but in a great number of cases it arises from disorder of the 

 stomach or liver. Sometimes it occurs quite suddenly, the sufferer being at the time 

 apparently in a state of perfect health. Often enough an attack may be distinctly 



