["Phenomenon" of vestibular compensation].

The role of spinal afferentation from the lower part of the body in establishing compensation of the consequences of the vestibular function abaissement was studied in experiments on guinea pigs. The ligation of the spinal cord at the level of thoracic segements performed under local anesthesia neither produced appreciable effect on the compensatory development at simultaneous or subsequent destruction of the labyrinth nor destroyed it in the preliminarily labyrinthectomized animals. The ligation of the spinal cord in the labyrinthectomized animals under ether or chloroform anesthesia was accompanied by a strong disorder of the compensation. The above substances also provoked analogous decompensation in the unilaterally labyrinthectomized animals with an intact spinal cord. The results obtained indicate that the reported disorder of the vestibular compensation induced by ligation of the spinal cord under ether anesthesia is consequent on an immediate effect of inhalation anesthetics on the compensatory mechanisms rather than is resultant of abolishing spinal afferentation from the lower part of the body.