Symptoms of Decompression 673 



So the expanded gases leave very easily by the anus; but the 

 last experiment shows, strangely enough, that they cannot, in a 

 cadaver, escape by the cardia, nor probably by the pylorus, so that 

 the stomach is distended. But in the living being this is not the 

 case, and eructation is produced, thanks to muscular action. 



This influence of decompression upon the intestinal gases is not 

 very important, but is interesting as being the only effect (or 

 nearly so) that it causes as a purely physical agent. 



On several occasions in my cylinders I have also felt nausea 

 and sickness caused by decompression. 



4. Nervous and Muscular Effects. 



When the pressure is lowered considerably, we have seen the 

 muscular strength of animals diminish rapidly. Birds refuse to 

 attempt to fly. They all quickly become and remain motionless, 

 no matter how much one excites and threatens them, or how fierce 

 or frightened they seemed at first; at lower pressures, they are 

 no longer able to remain upright but crouch; at still lower pres- 

 sures, they fall on their sides. 



In Subchapter III, I shall give the details of experiments in 

 which I underwent quite low pressures. I mention here this inter- 

 esting note that, when I wanted to raise my leg which had been 

 bent for some time, it was seized by convulsive jerks which I 

 could not control, but which ceased as soon as I rested it once more 

 on the floor. Similar quiverings have been reported by aeronauts, 

 who generally attributed them to the cold. M. Sivel, who has 

 experienced them, compares them to the period of chill in attacks 

 of intermittent fever. 



Animals subjected to rather low pressures become, as it were, 

 insensible and indifferent to everything; it seems evident to me 

 that sensibility as well as strength of reaction fail them at the same 

 time. Furthermore, in man, sensorial impressions are strangely 

 lessened in keenness; we shall see the proof of that in the story of 

 the ascent of Croce-Spinelli and Sivel. The same thing is true of 

 moral energy, of intellectual activity; in one of my experiments, 

 I was surprised at not being able to multiply 28, the number of my 

 heart-beats in a third of a minute, by 3. I had to be satisfied with 

 writing down these numbers in my notebook; this weakness, more- 

 over, left me quite indifferent. 



When decompression approaches the fatal limit, when it has 

 lasted a long time, or when it has been brought on very suddenly, 

 we often see occurring in the animals convulsive jerkings which 



