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Article
October 1954

INVALIDITY OF THE PHYSIOLOGIC INFERENCE OF EWALD'S LAW—ITS CLINICAL IMPORTANCE

Author Affiliations

PHILADELPHIA
From the Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

AMA Arch Otolaryngol. 1954;60(4):459-467. doi:10.1001/archotol.1954.00720010471008
Abstract

EWALD, in 1892, reported the results of his experiments with pigeons on the physiology of the semicircular canals.* As a result of these experiments two physiologic laws were formulated, and, as expressed in Morrison's textbook,3 are as follows: First, the horizontal semicircular canal gives a maximal response by movement of its endolymph toward its ampulla, while the reverse is true of the vertical semicircular canals. Second, when a canal is maximally stimulated, there results a nystagmus to the same side. Therefore, stimulation of the vestibular end-organ results from movement of the endolymph in the semicircular canal, which causes a bending of the cilia of the vestibular end-organ cells of the crista ampullaris.3 Ewald's law suggests that when the cilia of the horizontal semicircular canal are bent by a flow of endolymph toward its ampulla, maximal stimulation results. After this, Bárány observed clinically in the turning test, in stimulating

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