On Ménière's Syndrome

Although recruitment was discovered (Fowler 1936) twenty-five years ago there is still no agreement as to its precise mechanism and I want to -restate the theory that I put forward in 1950 (Tumarkin 1950), namely that recruitment occurs whenever the hair cells degenerate from without inwards. To any given sound there must correspond a specific pattern not only on the basilar membrane (Fig 1) but also on the brain-stem and in the cortex. Moreover the primary cortical sensation evokes memory patterns, which determine the .psychological significance of the sensation. It is