During the past two years we have divided the eighth cranial nerve in eleven patients for the relief of Ménière's disease. This paper is based on the study of ten of these patients, and includes observations on the diagnosis and operative procedure as well as on the results of the treatment. Ballance1proposed division of the eighth cranial nerve in 1894, but the operation was not carried out because the patient's attacks disappeared while he was under observation. In 1908, both Frazier2and Ballance sectioned the nerve intracranially. Frazier's patient had vertigo. and was benefited but not entirely relieved by the operation. The patient operated on by Ballance in 1908 for painful tinnitus had previously been operated on for removal of the semicircular canals with relief of the nausea. The tinnitus disappeared four months after section of the acoustic nerve. The patient had a stormy postoperative course. Frazier,