398 Historical 



into two categories: diseases which begin suddenly, which never 

 occur while the diver is in the compressed air, and which are the 

 result of the decompression; and diseases with an insidious begin- 

 ning, which must be directly connected with the action of the 

 compressed air. 



Diseases with a sudden beginning. In the first rank M. Gal 

 places the "fleas": 



This disorder disappears without any treatment and ends when a 

 hypersecretion of perspiration occurs. (Foley, p. 33) Is it then because 

 our divers were always covered with sweat when they reached the 

 deck that I have never had the opportunity to observe it? That seems 

 to me more than probable. (P. 33.) 



Then come the muscular pains, the attacks of arthritis: 



Among all these disorders, I have seen only extremely acute pains 

 appearing suddenly, soon after the exit from the compressed air; 

 affecting particularly the parts of the body in which muscular effort 

 was longest exerted, generally the left deltoid in divers; almost always 

 a little swelling in the part affected, but with no redness. These pains 

 never lasted more than two days, and generally they disappeared 

 after a few hours. 



All the divers, except two named Thepot and Paugarn, expe- 

 rienced them repeatedly. 



I have not listed any observations on this subject, because these 

 disorders, which were always slight, showed me nothing abnormal, 

 either in their course or in their ending. Rubbing with soothing balm 

 or application of a poultice with laudanum always dispelled them. 



Then pains and inflammation of the ears, of which M. Gal 

 mentions some examples, and gastric disturbances, the cause of 

 which lies perhaps in the nervous centers. A case of hemorrhage 

 was observed, which offers this rare circumstance of having begun 

 during the compression: 



December 15, a man by the name of Feroc, 28 years old, a diver 

 trained to the use of the suit, went down to a depth of 14 to 15 meters, 

 stayed at the bottom three quarters of an hour and came up with a 

 nosebleed which began while he was subjected to the pressure. His 

 face was slightly flushed, his pulse was 70. He told me that it was the 

 third noseblood he had had, and that it always began on the bottom. 

 Like the former ones, it stopped without treatment. 



January 12, this same diver went down again for the first time 

 since December 15, to a depth of 20 meters. Another hemorrhage 

 under the same conditions; only the pulse was 90 a quarter of an 

 hour after he came up, and an hour afterwards it was 70, weak and 

 easily depressed. At the same time, an acute headache. 



Stimulating friction; rest. The next day he was quite well. (P. 41) 



In regard to serious symptoms, M. Gal observed only one para- 



