Diving Bells and Suits 379 



reveal the vague ideas of the doctors about the real cause of the 

 accidents, and these uncertainties inspired the acquittals given: 



Another accident, followed by another court instance, took 

 place at the bridge over the Scorff. M. Gallois, civil engineer, an 

 agent of the company, who went down into the caissons May 12, 

 1862, on his return to open air was attacked by symptoms of 

 paralysis "as a result of cerebro-spinal congestions, spells of dizzi- 

 ness, and nervous shocks," so that he had to be sent to a watering- 

 place; he died two years afterwards. 



His request for damages was refused by the tribunal of the 

 Seine (August 18, 1861); the Orleans company produced an 

 opinion of M. Dufaure, which reveals, like the legal documents 

 which I mentioned a moment ago, the uncertainties of medical 

 science. The celebrated lawyer combats the opinion of Pol and 

 Watelle about the necessity of making the decompression very 

 slowly with that of M. Foley. The tribunal gave no decision as to 

 the scientific question, but declared that Gallois had not received 

 an order to go down into the caisson, and that consequently the 

 company could not be held responsible. 



Here is the condition in which Dr. Hermel," 4 a homeopathic 

 physician living in Paris, found M. Gallois, who had him called in 

 consultation a few days after the accident: 



May 21, 1862, we were called in Paris in the case of M. Gallois, 

 a civil engineer, aged 24. We found the patient suffering from incom- 

 plete paralysis of the lower limbs, permitting him neither to stand 

 upright nor to walk without support; he could advance only in a very 

 awkward manner, placing both hands on all the surrounding objects; 

 the movements of his limbs were irregular, jerky, trembling; he 

 dragged his feet; if he tried to stand upright, a violent trembling 

 immediately shook his legs and forced him to sit down. After three 

 or four steps, the same convulsive trembling stopped him, because it 

 kept increasing and would have made him fall. Over his whole body 

 cutaneous sensitivity was exaggerated, it was hyperesthesia, the skin 

 was the seat of an annoying pruritus, without any trace of an erup- 

 tion. The movements of the tongue were so difficult that the patient 

 could not pronounce all the words distinctly. Both memory and 

 ideas were confused. As a result of the suffocation, a frequent 

 cough tired him when he talked and produced a profuse expectoration 

 of mucus with the appearance of the white of an egg. Auscultation 

 of the chest and percussion showed that the lungs, though permeable 

 to air in their whole extent during deep inspirations, did not possess 

 their full elasticity; one could hear, especially on the left side, the 

 expansion of the pulmonary vesicles beginning and stopping suddenly 

 before the movement of inspiration was finished. This expansion of 

 the pulmonary vesicles was therefore incomplete, which hampered 

 normal respiration. The abdominal functions were interrupted; the 



