Symptoms of Decompression 683 



Much sugar and glycogenic material in the liver . 

 No urine; the bladder and kidneys, crushed with water, give no 

 sugar. 



And so, when the decompression has not lasted long but has 

 been great, sugar increases in the blood; it returns to its normal 

 value when the decompression has been sufficiently prolonged. This 

 difference I think can be explained in the following manner: the 

 liver, irritated by the action of blood that has suddenly lost its 

 oxygen, pours into the circulation a large quantity of sugar which 

 is shown by analysis, if the animal is killed in a short time; if, on 

 the contrary, there is some delay, this sugar disappears, and since 

 the liver is producing less and less of it, it returns to its usual value, 

 then lessens and finally disappears, even from the liver, as is shown 

 by Experiment CCXLIII on the rat. 



4. Temperature. It is not surprising to see the temperature of 

 the body fall, in consequence of this lessening of the chemical 

 phenomena of the organism. 



This phenomenon had already been observed in mountain as- 

 cents. Some attributed it to the surrounding cold, others to the 

 labor performed, and in this connection I spoke, in the historical 

 part, of the theory of M. Lortet. 



But the experiments reported above, show, by many examples, 

 that the temperature of animals subjected to decompression falls 

 without their doing the least work, without the air being chilled, 

 and without the possibility of attributing the phenomenon to the 

 current of air which must be kept around them to avoid the ac- 

 cumulation of carbonic acid. The loss is generally 2 or 3 degrees 

 for a drop of a half or two-thirds of an atmosphere in a half-hour, 

 for example. But that depends on the degree of the decompres- 

 sion, its duration, and the animal species. 



Thus, in a large dog (Exp. CCXVI), brought in two hours to 

 25 cm. pressure, the temperature had dropped 2 degrees. 



All the experiments give similar results. I shall mention par- 

 ticularly, because it eliminates the effect of the current of air (Exp. 

 CCXXII), that in which three rabbits were subjected, one to a 

 current of air at normal pressure, the second to a current under a 

 pressure of 50 to 55 cm., the third to a current under a pressure of 

 40 cm., all of them for four hours. At the end of this time, the 

 temperature was, for the first, 39.5°; for the other two, 38°. The 

 birds mentioned in Chapter I, Subchapter I, present phenomena of 

 the same sort, whose details it would be useless to stress. 



But it is with guinea pigs that I have succeeded in getting the 



