382 Historical 



the regions sustaining the weight of the body; finally, erections not 

 accompanied by any stimulus of the genital impulse. There was never 

 any considerable sensitivity along the spine. 



The improvement did not make very rapid progress. In May, 

 1870, M. Counord took several steps without support; he still had 

 very unusual reflex movements when his lower limbs were 

 pinched; the sensitivity of the left leg was much diminished. I 

 saw him again in May, 1876; he could climb one flight of stairs with 

 great difficulty and with the aid of an arm; formications in the 

 upper limbs seemed to indicate a morbid action in the upper 

 regions of the spinal cord; the functions of urination and defecation 

 had become normal again. 



A few days later, a terrible accident, in which three men died, 

 saddened the Bayonne works; the caisson had burst, as happened 

 at Douchy, and later at Chalonnes. The suggestion 26 was made 

 that the death of the workmen had been caused by the decom- 

 pression; that is probably a mistake, as is shown by the following 

 extract . from a letter written me by the engineer Bayssellance, 

 who was kind enough to make a little investigation of the matter, 

 at my request: 



The pier, being deeply imbedded in the sand, measured in all 

 more than 30 meters from base to the water level. The inner pressure, 

 therefore, was about 4Vi atmospheres. The upper surface, not being 

 constructed with a view to such a high pressure, buckled perceptibly: 

 this buckling caused a deformation of the cast-iron cylinder of the 

 equilibrium chamber. One of the bolts having yielded to the uneven 

 tension, a shock was produced which made the whole upper part of 

 the equilibrium chamber fly to pieces. The decompression in this 

 small portion of the apparatus was therefore sudden; in the interior 

 of the pier, the capacity of which was 200 to 300 cubic meters, it 

 must have been more gradual, and brought a violent current of air 

 upwards from below, bringing with it the planks and the sand of the 

 resting stages. 



According to the foreman, the results were quite different from 

 what was reported. No man was killed by the change of pressure. 

 Since the wet sand from the bottom was no longer restrained, it 

 rose rapidly, reached and passed over one of the men who was climb- 

 ing the ladder; he was found seventeen days afterwards when the 

 caisson was being cleared out, clinging to the ladder rungs in the 

 position of climbing. Another was carried away by the air current 

 and found himself at the top without really knowing what had hap- 

 pened to him. Two others who were on the intermediary stages were 

 carried up and crowded against the under side of the floor of the 

 equilibrium chamber, and were almost suffocated, with their mouths 

 full of sand; they were taken to the hospital, and died the next day, 

 I think. Finally, five men who were in the equilibrium chamber itself 



