To our knowledge, the first reference to the syndrome was made by Erasmus Darwin, in 1796. He wrote:
"Those, who have been upon the water in a boat or ship so long, that they have acquired the necessary habits of motion upon that unstable element, at their return on land frequently think in their reveries, or between sleeping and waking, that they observe the room, they sit in, or some of its furniture, to librate like the motion of the vessel. This I have experienced myself, and have been told, that after long voyages, it is some time before these ideas entirely vanish. The same is observable in a less degree after having travelled some days in a stage coach, and particularly when we lie down in bed, and compose ourselves to sleep; in this case it is observable, that the rattling noise of the coach, as well as the undulatory motion, haunts us. " (
As early as 1881, Irwin noted that sailors gradually adapt to the motion of a ship, and that this adaptation may prove problematic on returning to land:
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Upon the ocean habit teaches the [semicircular] canals to adapt themselves to the new condition of things, and to pass over unheeded erroneous impressions which were noticed at first. In fact, the new habit may become so strong that a disturbance of it, by a return to land, will be marked by a similar phenomenon; hence the unsteady gait sometimes observable in a not-drunken sailor during his first few hours on shore after a long and stormy voyage (Irwin 1881) |
Irwin JA. The pathology of sea-sickness. Lancet 1881;ii: 907-9.
Agatha Christie also described this phenomenon in her novel Sleeping Murder:
Gwenda Reed stood, shivered a little, on the quayside. The docks and the custom sheds and all of England that she could see were gently waving up and down…She had only just got off that heaving, creaking boat (it had been an exceptionally rough three days through the Bay and up to Plymouth)…On the following morning…the universe in general was no longer waving and wobbling. It had steadied down… (Christie 1976)
