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BORN in Hungary in 1876, Robert Bárány received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1915, the highest award possible for a medical scientist. The half century that has elapsed has in no way dimmed the luster of his scientific achievements forever identified with the clinical tests of labyrinthine function, including the Bárány rotating chair, the Bárány noise apparatus, and the caloric test of vestibular function.
Bárány's foremost published work, "Investigations on Rhythmic Nystagmus and Its Accompanying Manifestations Arising from the Vestibular Apparatus of the Ear," appeared in Vol 40 of the Monatschrift fur Ohrenheilkunde in 1906. In this he synthesized and combined the anatomical, experimental, and clinical observations of Retzius, Cajal, Bolk, Goltz, Purkinje, Flourens, Meniere, Jansen, Breuer, Mach, Crum-Brown, Ewald, Högyes, and others, and thus clarified and solved many conflicting and perplexing observations and problems relative to vestibular and cerebellar function. Bárány's greatness lay in his ability