Increased Pressure 1029 



For this time, there would be needed at the most a total quantity 

 of one cubic meter of gaseous mixture, containing from 50 to 100 

 liters of added oxygen; little balloons of goldbeater's skin, with 

 perfumed washbottles, would do in practice, and the necessary 

 manipulations would soon become familiar to the patients. I am 

 deeply convinced that such a medication would give as good re- 

 sults as the use of compressed air. 



I think that we have been a little too timid in the therapeutic 

 use of compressed air. Never, indeed, has any medical apparatus 

 gone beyond 2 atmospheres, total pressure; rarely has even this 

 pressure been reached. I think it could be carried without any 

 inconvenience to 3 atmospheres; as a matter of fact, the maximum 

 of intra-organic oxidations is at about this level, and if compressed 

 air acts favorably on patients by increasing the oxidations, we can 

 go that far logically. 



Pravaz, we have seen, made some attempts towards the surgical 

 use of compressed air. I am surprised that he did not think of 

 recommending it in the case of strangulated hernias when the 

 intestine contains much gas which prevents reduction; at 2 atmos- 

 pheres, the volume of these gases would be diminished one-half, 

 at 3 atmospheres by two-thirds, which would make an important 

 difference. The taxis would, of course, be resumed in the ap- 

 paratus itself. 



Finally, in certain stifling cases of tympanites, if one subjected 

 the patient to compressed air, the danger of suffocation would cease 

 immediately. Perhaps it would appear again if no medication 

 could check the disease; but it is worth trying. In all cases, the 

 patients should be kept in the cylinders until completely cured. 



What would result from the medical use of very high pres- 

 sures, 3 atmospheres and more? The lessening of the combustions 

 would make this treatment an antiphlogistic, certainly; but would 

 not some other element enter into the matter? It is probable that 

 the attempt will not be made for a long time, at least by hospital 

 doctors. Those who care for caisson workmen and divers, we have 

 seen, have already had the opportunity to observe that oxygen at 

 high tension exercises a favorable action on inflammatory 

 symptoms. 



B. Hygiene. Laborers who work on bridge piling and divers 

 in suits have not yet reached the degree at which the respiration 

 of compressed air becomes evidently dangerous, according to our 

 experiments: the strongest pressure yet attained was 4.25 atmos- 

 pheres at Douchy and 4.45 at St. Louis, U. S. A. And yet certain 



