Vertigo is a feeling of confusion, a lack of knowledge of one's position in space, usually accompanied by a sensation of movement of self in some direction, or of a movement of one's surroundings, with the result that an attempt is made to correct the position by a movement in the opposite direction, or to assume some safe pose, such as lying or sitting down.
The anatomic arrangement of the internal ear and its connections with the cerebrospinal fluid, with its continuous series of pressure changes, offer a logical explanation for the production of the tonic impulses from the labyrinth, which produce muscular tonus and equilibration of the muscles.
Knowledge of one's position and changing position, one's orientation in space, is derived from the eyes, the internal ear (the labyrinth), the tactile, muscular and arthrodial senses and possibly from the tactile nerves of the large organs of the body.