Diving Bells and Suits 405 



IX. In the month of September, 1869, a man named Georgios 

 Baboris was diving at Candia; he was slightly affected by paralysis. 

 Treated at Megalo-Castro, he was very soon on his feet and only a 

 slight weakness of his lower limbs remained. 



After this interesting enumeration, M. Gal adds: 



What we have just shown by these observations, the frequency of 

 functional lesions of the spinal cord, appeared also in the ten divers 

 who died in 1867. Only three died suddenly; the other seven dragged 

 on a longer or shorter time. The latter were all paraplegic. I had 

 another purpose in listing these observations, that is, to show tiiat 

 with precautions one can lessen the number of accidents considerably. 



So in 1867, there were in Greece 12 diving suits manned by 24 

 divers; there were ten deaths. The Greeks went down to depths of 

 more than 45 meters, had themselves hoisted up rapidly when they 

 wished to come up, and made a considerable number of dives during 

 the day. 



In 1868, there were at least ten suits at Calymnos alone. They 

 used 30 divers; there were two deaths, and two cases of paraplegia 

 ending in recovery. 



In 1869, more than 15 suits, using more than 45 divers. Three 

 deaths and three cases of paraplegia. 



I could get these statistics only for the island of Calymnos; but 

 one can see how much the number and the severity of the accidents 

 diminished. The precaution of taking three divers for each suit, to 

 lessen the daily work of each one, and a little greater care in regard 

 to the depth were enough to bring about this result. A little book 

 published in Greek by M. Denayrouze and distributed liberally among 

 the divers has no doubt had its share in bringing about this improve- 

 ment. (P. 56.) 



And now we come to the second category of diseases obser- 

 ved among the divers. M. Gal calls them by the name of Diseases 

 with gradual beginning; according to him, they are the multiple 

 manifestations (emaciation, loss of strength) of a peculiar anemia: 



Like Foley, we attribute the emaciation to the effect of the com- 

 pressed air and what we have noted many times, that after several 

 days of work, all the divers without exception showed evident symp- 

 toms of anemia, and a much more definite susceptibility to attacks of 

 the diseases with a sudden beginning. It was then that almost all 

 experienced more or less keen muscular pains, and that prudence 

 required us to make them take a restorative rest. (P. 57.) 



I owe to Dr. Sampadarios of Egina a series of interesting and 

 unpublished observations which I copy without omitting anything; 

 I am glad to be able to thank him here for his interesting com- 

 munications: 



Observation I. During the summer of 1866, they called me to 

 attend one L. This man had for some time been diving in a suit in 



