of Edinburgh, Session 1881-82. 
595 
abdominal pain and diarrhoea, that I must still consider myself an 
invalid, or at best a convalescent. After about four weeks I found 
that I could venture on a chop or a potato, and gradually felt 
my way back to the usual diet. In all this there is nothing I 
suppose at all uncommon. It is the first time I experienced any 
thing of the kind, but I have no doubt others have often gone 
through the same or worse, and my dyspepsia can have no sort of 
interest in itself to a physician. 
Accompanying the dyspepsia there was, however, a symptom, 
which may be common, but which, as far as I know, has not been 
described, at all events does not seem to have been felt by any one 
sufficiently interested in physiology to lead him to make careful ob- 
servations on it. This was a very well-marked but not very violent 
vertigo. This symptom did not make its appearance at first, — in 
fact, it was two days after what I have called the crisis before any 
trace of vertigo appeared. I was nearly quite well, though of course 
my wellness depended on my adherence to the sparing indulgence 
in beef tea and custard pudding, when I first felt the vertigo. 
Walking along the street, my attention was suddenly called to a 
dog at the side of the pavement, and I turned my head sharply to 
the left side and downwards, to look at him. I immediately felt a 
very distinct attack of vertigo, and it was with some effort that 
I preserved my equilibrium. I walked home without the least 
difficulty, as the vertigo passed off very quickly, and I found that if 
I avoided sudden movements of the head I could keep clear of such 
attacks. All that remained was a feeling of constraint and want of 
confidence. The same evening, after putting ont the gas in the lobby 
and staircase, I was going to bed when I found I had to go down- 
stairs again, having forgotten something or other. I ran down 
without thinking of the vertigo, and when I reached the foot of the 
stair was mnch surprised by what I saw. Above my front door 
there is, as there is in most Edinburgh houses, an oblong pane of 
glass, and when the house is in darkness, the light from the lamps 
in the street shines in by this window. Now what I saw was an 
oblong illuminated area, not with horizontal and vertical sides, but 
inclined so that its long sides made an angle, as far as my 
recollection enables me to estimate it, of about 20° at least with the 
horizontal. While wondering what this could be, I suddenly saw 
that it must be the window, and the instant this idea occurred to 
VOL. xi. 4 B 
