Diving Bells and Suits 373 



Pathological effects. These are first earaches and inflammations 

 of the ear, after which the hearing often remains much impaired. 



Then pains in the muscles or the joints: there were 133 cases 

 of this sort. They disappeared after a few days. Sometimes there 

 was a rather evident local swelling, but without crepitation. In 

 one of the cases, the left breast of one of the workmen suddenly 

 swelled so as "to resemble the well-formed breast of a woman;" 

 this painful swelling quickly yielded to the application of cupping- 

 glasses with scarification. (P. 307.) In another case, the patient 

 was left unable to use his left leg. 



M. Francois also mentions as frequent the itching of the skin, 

 fleas, as the workmen call it; it yields, he says, to washing with 

 cool water. 



He explains, by congestions about the lungs, the heart, the liver, 

 and the spleen, some rather vague symptoms, in which suffocations, 

 palpitations, etc. are involved; one of the patients, who was, more- 

 over, subject to hemoptysis, died a few months afterwards. 



Finally, the violent headache and the loss of consciousness are 

 attributed to a cerebral congestion; these congestions began only 

 after a quarter or a half an hour. In one of these cases, the work- 

 man, who left the caissons (3 atmospheres) without experiencing 

 anything but a very uncomfortable prickling over the whole body, 

 walked to the citadel with a nimble step; when he reached there, 

 he fell as if struck by lightning: repeated bleedings, purgings, etc.; 

 he recovered, except for a considerable weakness of the lower 

 limbs for a rather long time. 



This brings us to the description of some functional lesions 

 of the spinal cord: retention of the urine, violent pains in the 

 limbs, and, for one patient, paraplegia persisting on the left side; 

 the pressure was 3 atmospheres. 



Let us finally say that slight nasal and even pulmonary hemorr- 

 hages have sometimes been noted. 



I mention only for the record a work of M. Willemin, 20 which 

 is only a simple report of that of M. Francois, all of whose conclu- 

 sions the author seems to accept, for he does not give any attention 

 to the theoretical explanations. 



The thesis of M. Bucquoy LM is, on the contrary, an original work 

 of real importance. His observations, as I have said, were made 

 at the time of the construction of the bridge of Kehl. 



At the beginning of his exposition we find a bit of information 

 from which we shall perhaps later derive some profit, namely, 

 that the air in the caissons in which the laborers were working 



