Diving Bells and Suits 357 



increasing for several minutes. However, I did not experience any 

 pains in the ears; but my companion was in such pain that we had to 

 stop the descent for a few minutes. To remedy this distress, the 

 workmen advised us to swallow our saliva, after closing the nostrils 

 and the mouth tightly, and to hold our breath for a few instants, so 

 that, by this exercise, the inner air might act upon the Eustachian 

 tube. My companion got little relief from this procedure. When we 

 began to move again, he was in great pain, he was pale, his lips had 

 lost their color, one would have thought him nauseated. His prostra- 

 tion was due, no doubt, to the violence of the pain, added to a fear 

 which he could not overcome. This experience produced the opposite 

 effect upon me: I was in a state of excitement, as if I had drunk some 

 alcoholic liquor, I had no pain, I merely experienced a strong pressure 

 around my head, as if an iron ring had been fastened tightly about 

 it. While I was talking with the workmen, I had some difficulty in 

 hearing them; this difficulty in hearing became so great that for three 

 or four minutes I did not hear them speaking; I did not even hear 

 myself, although I was talking as loud as I could, and soon the noise 

 caused by the violence of the current against the walls of the bell no 

 longer reached my ear. (P. 6) .... 



At last we reached the bottom of the sea, where every disagree- 

 able sensation ceased almost entirely .... 



We breathed very easily during our whole visit under water .... 

 Our pulse rate showed no change ..... 



As we rose again, our sensations were very different from those 

 we had experienced as we descended; it seemed to us as if our heads 

 were becoming much larger; that all our bones were on the point of 

 separating. This discomfort did not last long. (P. 8.) 



To these almost negative observations, Colladon adds two facts 

 which are most interesting and which were the point of departure 

 of important therapeutic applications: 



None of the workmen become deaf; it would rather seem that in 

 certain cases, the effect of the bell on the ears might serve as a remedy 

 for deafness. One of the workmen, who had habitually breathed with 

 great difficulty, was completely cured shortly after undertaking work 

 in the bell. (P. 14.) 



The diving bell today is completely abandoned. It has been 

 replaced by caissons filled with compressed air by the Triger 

 method. 



Interesting attempts have been made repeatedly to invent 

 submarine boats in which men would live either in compressed 

 air or in air at normal pressure. These attempts began in the 

 seventeenth century; Father Mersenne, the friend of Descartes, 

 did not scorn to apply himself to the subject; more recently R. 

 Fulton in the port of Brest made attempts which perhaps should 

 have been encouraged; then came Payerne, whpse submarine 

 hydrostat operated with some success. In our own time, M. Villeroi, 



