894 Experiments 



It is not paralyzed; but after some minutes, paraplegia begins 

 and becomes complete, with reflex movements persisting. 



No gurgles in the heart heard at all, and respiration goes on fairly 

 well. 



4:50. Oxygen discontinued. The animal cannot stand on its hind 

 legs. 



Respiration maintained well, heart beats are unaltered. 



6:30. Same condition; sensitivity in the hind legs dulled. 



December 14. Lying down, cannot stand on its hind legs, although 

 it can move them spontaneously, and perceives pricks in them. Dies 

 during the night of December 14-15. 



The data which have just been reported, and the results of 

 which had already been listed in Table XVIII, show that one of 

 our anticipations was completely realized. Under the effect of 

 inhalation of pure oxygen, the gases contained in the veins and 

 the right heart diminished, then disappeared; the heart gurgles 

 either did not appear or stopped when the respiration of oxygen 

 began early. The danger of an immediate death, through stoppage 

 of the pulmonary circulation, was therefore averted. 4 



But yet we could not save our animals; the paralysis persisted, 

 and in spite of a real immediate improvement, ended in carrying 

 off our experimental subjects. 



That is because the inhalation of oxygen could not bring back 

 into the blood stream and dispose of the bubbles of gas which 

 had stopped here and there in the capillaries of the central nervous 

 system. And it could not, for an even better reason, cause the 

 absorption of the bubbles which, as we have seen, escape into the 

 interior of the tissues. 



Upon them, only recompression can have a beneficial effect. 

 But, on the other hand, recompression cannot cause a considerable 

 collection of gases in the right heart to be redissolved. 



We are, therefore, led to recommend the successive use of the 

 respiration of oxygen, to eliminate the nitrogen stored up in the 

 right heart, and recompression to dissolve the bubbles which have 

 stopped in the capillaries or are scattered through the tissues. 



Even so, we cannot be sure of a cure, because the bubbles of gas, 

 when they pass to a free state in the interior of delicate tissues, like 

 those of the spinal cord, may have caused disturbances or lacera- 

 tions there, the fatal effects of which cannot be averted by the dis- 

 appearance of the bubbles. 



It is, then, upon preventive measures, that is, slow decompres- 

 sion, that industry must depend, and that is a point to which we 

 shall return in our third part. 



