Sudden Changes in Pressure 869 



Experiment DLIX. May 6. Dog weighing 11 kilos. 



From 1 o'clock to 1:58, compressed to 7% atmospheres. 



I maintain a current of air under pressure until 7 o'clock, when 

 I make the decompression in 3 minutes. 



On leaving the apparatus, the animal staggers, then stops, falls, 

 and dies. 



There are abundant bubbles of air in the right heart and the 

 veins, tiny bubbles in the left heart. 



No gas in the subcutaneous cellular tissue, except in the hollows 

 of the armpits; gas is also found in small bubbles in the tissue of the 

 epiploon. 



The intestines do not appear more swollen than under ordinary 

 conditions. 



Experiment DLX. June 3. Bitch of Experiments DLII to DLVI. 

 Well fed, has become fat and very well. 



From 3:05 to 4:05 was taken to 8 atmospheres and decompressed 

 immediately in 1% minutes. 



Taken from the apparatus, it runs everywhere, apparently gay, 

 and wagging its tail. 



But after 3 or 4 minutes, utters pitiful howls and tries to bite its 

 hindquarters, which begin to be paralyzed. 



Auscultation of the heart shows considerable gurgling on the 

 right, but not on the left. 



Two or three minutes later, the howls cease, the paralysis, both 

 of sensibility and movement, is complete. 



It increases, affects the whole body, with rigors in the legs and 

 neck. The respiration, which for a long time has been merely 

 diaphragmatic, becomes very difficult; the heart slows down and the 

 animal dies about 4:30. 



I find gas in the general venous system and the portal vein, but 

 not in the arteries. 



There is emphysema in the subcutaneous tissue of the armpits; 

 there are innumerable little bubbles in the fatty tissue under the 

 muscles of the thorax, and in the sub-aponeurotic layer all along the 

 back, in the epiploon, the mediastinum, the furrow of the heart, and 

 the fatty tissue of the medullary canal. 



Index of air in the vessels of the medullary and cerebral pia- 

 mater: nothing in the velum interpositum, or the cerebro-spinal 

 liquid. 



No blood effusion in the brain; rather large dotting on the 

 spinal cord. Lungs healthy, without congestion or emphysema; con- 

 gestion of the spleen; little suffusions of the great epiploon. 



Experiment DLXI. July 21. Dog weighing 6.5 kilos. 

 From 2:30 to 4 o'clock, taken to 8 atmospheres. 

 At 4:10, decompressed in l 1 /* minutes. 



Dies at 4:22, with air in quantity in the whole venous system; 

 small bubbles in the left heart. 

 Lungs blood-shot, edematous. 



