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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEA-SICKNESS.
1289 green. A general committee has been formed and it is proposed to raise a fund to be called the " Peter
defective or absent, cannot be made giddy by forcible rotation, and are stated to be practically exempt from Thompson Memorial Fund." The ultimate decision sea-sickness. There is, again, the evidence afforded as to the form of the memorial should take will by the " phantom swing." This is an apparatus that depend on the amount which is subscribed, but the looks exactly like an ordinary swing attached to the general feeling appears to be that the foundation of ceiling of a room. In reality it is attached to an axis an annual prize in anatomy would be appropriate. around which the whole room is capable of rotating ; When the room A circular letter has been sent out, but we feel that the " swing " itself never moves. many who would like to contribute to this fund may is oscillated about the sitter through a gradually
increasing arc, the impression he receives from the Subscriptions should be sent to either of the eye are those of being himself swung, but these impressecretaries of the fund at 52, Newhall-street, Birming- sions are in conflict with those from his other organs ham, and cheques made payable to the " Peter of balance and movement (the semicircular canals Thompson Memorial Fund " and crossed Lloyds and otolith receptacle) which are transmitting Bank.-We are, Sir, yours faithfully, messages " to the effect that he is not in motion. C. BRASH, JAMES C. This confusion of the sensorium not infrequently BRASH, have been overlooked.
"
-
Chairman.
results in giddiness, nausea, and even vomiting. Dr. Stoddart believes that the rise and fall of a boat during a sea-voyage tends to remind certain people " in an unconscious way " of " the respiratory rise and fall of the mother’s breast " when, as infants, they were being suckled, and that the sea-sickness with its rejection of food is a mode of repressing this infantile memory. He disposes ofthe objection that artificially fed infants also grow up into individuals prone to sea-sickness with the explanation that these were either nursed against the mother’s breast whilst sucking their feeding-bottles, or else this was " supplemented or replaced by jigging the child to and fro or up and down, cradle-rocking, swinging, and so forth." Possibly, too, their " oral libido " was at too high a potential. May I ask him whether he would further stretch this already severely strained and far-fetched theory so as to include lower animals, such as dogs, who are frequently sea-sick, but who are not, as in the case of the human infant, suckled at pectoral mammae, nor " jigged," nor " cradle-rocked," and who have no thumbs of their own nor fingers of a nurse to increase their " oral libido " ? It is questionable if those who go down to the sea in ships will gather either sense or comfort from Dr. Stoddart’s remarkable assertion that his " explanation of sea-sickness will never cure a patient suffering from it. To be effective, he must discover the explanation for himself, out of his own mind." There are a goodly number of vaunted cures for mal de mer, most of them harmful, all of them useless, but an explanation out of one’s own mind is a distinct novelty in the way of nostrums. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, C. MARSH BEADNELL, Surgeon Rear-Admiral, R.N.
LEONARD G. PARSONS, HILDA N. SHUFFLEBOTHAM, Hon. Secretaries and Treasurers.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEA-SICKNESS. To the Editor
of THE LANCET. SIR,—Will you kindly permit one who has spent much of his life afloat, commencing in a troopship at the age of a few months and only severing his connexion with the sea after some 17 years spent in all manner of craft, from destroyers and cruisers to battleships and liners, to offer a few observations on the psychology of sea-sickness. Dr. W. H. B. Stoddart is of the opinion that " sea-sickness is always of psychical origin." I confess to being mystified by this statement. " Psychical " is the adjective of psyche," and by the latter I presume he means mind." Now mind is an abstraction, a mot de "
"
"
innumerable and multifarious processes taking place in brain substance, more especially, probably, in the cortical association areas. for
convenance
the
in my
"
opinion, originates in " things and not in processes." Had Dr. Stoddart expressed the opinion that sea-sickness originates in the brain, one could, at any rate, even if disagreeing, have Sea-sickness, "
understood what he meant, but to maintain that it " " originates in a psyche is to confuse an abstract function with a concrete substance. My acquaintance-longer than I care to think ofwith this distressful malady as experienced in myself and exemplified in others convinces me that the only rational way to consider it is from a standpoint that regards the organism and the enviroment as an interconnected whole. If the relationship existing between the organism and environment be disturbed in a certain manner sea-sickness ensues. The ultimate origin of sea-sickness is obviously extra-organismal. The peripheral sense-organs convert environmental stimuli into centripetal nerve impulses which, streaming inwards by different routes eventually-that is, after integration and coordination by the cortical neurons-give rise to certain sensations, states of consciousness, and centrifugal nerve impulses that characterise the giddiness, nausea, faintness, sweating, It is of sea-sickness. retching and vomiting, &c., failure on the part of the organism correctly to interpret the resulting coordination of the several streams of nerve impulses flowing cerebropetally from the endorgans of orientation and movement that constitutes the basis of sea-sickness. The unpleasant sights, sounds, and smells, the stuffy, over-heated and vitiated air, incidental to a sea voyage in rough weather, are but powerful contributory factors. Short of stepping ashore and stopping ashore there is only one cure for sea-sickness, and that is adjustment of the conflicting impressions by the brain-adaptation. Under normal conditions the senses of orientation and movement, as derived from nerve impulses originating in the muscles, articular surfaces, in the walls of the otolith organ and semicircular canals, receiveconfirmatory evidence from corresponding nerveimpulses emanating from the organs of vision. In sea-sickness the ingoing messages
belies
ear.
are
utterly contradictory-in short,
eye
Deaf-mutes, in whom the otolith organ is
Chatham.
I HYPERGLYCÆMIA AND GLYCOSURIA IN ACROMEGALY. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—In the paper by Dr. A. W. M. Ellis, published under the above heading in your issue of June 14th, no allowances have been made for the variations in the concentration of the blood that appear to take place after a meal in cases where there are disturbances of the functions of the pituitary. Possibly the apparent diminution of carbohydrate tolerance after the operation shown in this case by the percentage of sugar in the blood may be partly accounted for by variations in the blood volume resulting from With reference to the theory Dr. the test-meal. Ellis advances to explain the glycosuria of acromegaly, I may say that the metabolic experiments on animals upon which llr. H. A. H. Howard and I are at present engaged have given results which tend to support his view, for they suggest that pituitrin is chemically antagonistic to insulin, and that, unlike adrenalin, it does not produce its effects on carbohydrate metabolism by directly influencing the formation of sugar from stored carbohydrate in the body, but by preventing the action of insulin in that direction. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, P. J. J. CAMMIDGE. Nottingham-place, W.. June 16th, 1924.
defective or absent, cannot be made giddy by forcible rotation, and are stated to be practically exempt from Thompson Memorial Fund." The ultimate decision sea-sickness. There is, again, the evidence afforded as to the form of the memorial should take will by the " phantom swing." This is an apparatus that depend on the amount which is subscribed, but the looks exactly like an ordinary swing attached to the general feeling appears to be that the foundation of ceiling of a room. In reality it is attached to an axis an annual prize in anatomy would be appropriate. around which the whole room is capable of rotating ; When the room A circular letter has been sent out, but we feel that the " swing " itself never moves. many who would like to contribute to this fund may is oscillated about the sitter through a gradually
increasing arc, the impression he receives from the Subscriptions should be sent to either of the eye are those of being himself swung, but these impressecretaries of the fund at 52, Newhall-street, Birming- sions are in conflict with those from his other organs ham, and cheques made payable to the " Peter of balance and movement (the semicircular canals Thompson Memorial Fund " and crossed Lloyds and otolith receptacle) which are transmitting Bank.-We are, Sir, yours faithfully, messages " to the effect that he is not in motion. C. BRASH, JAMES C. This confusion of the sensorium not infrequently BRASH, have been overlooked.
"
-
Chairman.
results in giddiness, nausea, and even vomiting. Dr. Stoddart believes that the rise and fall of a boat during a sea-voyage tends to remind certain people " in an unconscious way " of " the respiratory rise and fall of the mother’s breast " when, as infants, they were being suckled, and that the sea-sickness with its rejection of food is a mode of repressing this infantile memory. He disposes ofthe objection that artificially fed infants also grow up into individuals prone to sea-sickness with the explanation that these were either nursed against the mother’s breast whilst sucking their feeding-bottles, or else this was " supplemented or replaced by jigging the child to and fro or up and down, cradle-rocking, swinging, and so forth." Possibly, too, their " oral libido " was at too high a potential. May I ask him whether he would further stretch this already severely strained and far-fetched theory so as to include lower animals, such as dogs, who are frequently sea-sick, but who are not, as in the case of the human infant, suckled at pectoral mammae, nor " jigged," nor " cradle-rocked," and who have no thumbs of their own nor fingers of a nurse to increase their " oral libido " ? It is questionable if those who go down to the sea in ships will gather either sense or comfort from Dr. Stoddart’s remarkable assertion that his " explanation of sea-sickness will never cure a patient suffering from it. To be effective, he must discover the explanation for himself, out of his own mind." There are a goodly number of vaunted cures for mal de mer, most of them harmful, all of them useless, but an explanation out of one’s own mind is a distinct novelty in the way of nostrums. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, C. MARSH BEADNELL, Surgeon Rear-Admiral, R.N.
LEONARD G. PARSONS, HILDA N. SHUFFLEBOTHAM, Hon. Secretaries and Treasurers.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEA-SICKNESS. To the Editor
of THE LANCET. SIR,—Will you kindly permit one who has spent much of his life afloat, commencing in a troopship at the age of a few months and only severing his connexion with the sea after some 17 years spent in all manner of craft, from destroyers and cruisers to battleships and liners, to offer a few observations on the psychology of sea-sickness. Dr. W. H. B. Stoddart is of the opinion that " sea-sickness is always of psychical origin." I confess to being mystified by this statement. " Psychical " is the adjective of psyche," and by the latter I presume he means mind." Now mind is an abstraction, a mot de "
"
"
innumerable and multifarious processes taking place in brain substance, more especially, probably, in the cortical association areas. for
convenance
the
in my
"
opinion, originates in " things and not in processes." Had Dr. Stoddart expressed the opinion that sea-sickness originates in the brain, one could, at any rate, even if disagreeing, have Sea-sickness, "
understood what he meant, but to maintain that it " " originates in a psyche is to confuse an abstract function with a concrete substance. My acquaintance-longer than I care to think ofwith this distressful malady as experienced in myself and exemplified in others convinces me that the only rational way to consider it is from a standpoint that regards the organism and the enviroment as an interconnected whole. If the relationship existing between the organism and environment be disturbed in a certain manner sea-sickness ensues. The ultimate origin of sea-sickness is obviously extra-organismal. The peripheral sense-organs convert environmental stimuli into centripetal nerve impulses which, streaming inwards by different routes eventually-that is, after integration and coordination by the cortical neurons-give rise to certain sensations, states of consciousness, and centrifugal nerve impulses that characterise the giddiness, nausea, faintness, sweating, It is of sea-sickness. retching and vomiting, &c., failure on the part of the organism correctly to interpret the resulting coordination of the several streams of nerve impulses flowing cerebropetally from the endorgans of orientation and movement that constitutes the basis of sea-sickness. The unpleasant sights, sounds, and smells, the stuffy, over-heated and vitiated air, incidental to a sea voyage in rough weather, are but powerful contributory factors. Short of stepping ashore and stopping ashore there is only one cure for sea-sickness, and that is adjustment of the conflicting impressions by the brain-adaptation. Under normal conditions the senses of orientation and movement, as derived from nerve impulses originating in the muscles, articular surfaces, in the walls of the otolith organ and semicircular canals, receiveconfirmatory evidence from corresponding nerveimpulses emanating from the organs of vision. In sea-sickness the ingoing messages
belies
ear.
are
utterly contradictory-in short,
eye
Deaf-mutes, in whom the otolith organ is
Chatham.
I HYPERGLYCÆMIA AND GLYCOSURIA IN ACROMEGALY. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—In the paper by Dr. A. W. M. Ellis, published under the above heading in your issue of June 14th, no allowances have been made for the variations in the concentration of the blood that appear to take place after a meal in cases where there are disturbances of the functions of the pituitary. Possibly the apparent diminution of carbohydrate tolerance after the operation shown in this case by the percentage of sugar in the blood may be partly accounted for by variations in the blood volume resulting from With reference to the theory Dr. the test-meal. Ellis advances to explain the glycosuria of acromegaly, I may say that the metabolic experiments on animals upon which llr. H. A. H. Howard and I are at present engaged have given results which tend to support his view, for they suggest that pituitrin is chemically antagonistic to insulin, and that, unlike adrenalin, it does not produce its effects on carbohydrate metabolism by directly influencing the formation of sugar from stored carbohydrate in the body, but by preventing the action of insulin in that direction. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, P. J. J. CAMMIDGE. Nottingham-place, W.. June 16th, 1924.