528 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
2% hours daily and, according to others, that the diver should dive but once 
a day. 
(6) Avoidance of diving during a cold or with a full stomach. 
(7) Avoidance of fatigue, of use of liquor, of fasting. 
(8) Presence of remedies and means for first aid on each vessel, as (a) 
compressed-air treatment when the diver falls ill, a thing which Savvas himself 
admits is impossible, since there is room for only one diving apparatus on each 
vessel, and the latter serves for the work and not for curative purposes; () 
breathing of compressed air; (c) establishment of hospitals on the African 
coast and in Greece; such a hospital was founded in Tripoli in Aprii, 1904. 
Savvas says in chapter 8, under the heading “‘ The result,’’ that about 2,600 
men are engaged in sponge fishing in Greece alone, that among these there are 
636 machine divers on 134 vessels with 1,218 sailors, that according to the 
reports of the commanders of the Kreta at least 60 to 100 divers die each year, 
and that so many fall ill that four-fifths of them are more or less severely crip- 
pled, a fact that renders their work much more arduous or often completely 
incapacitates them. The remaining sponge fishermen, of whom those using 
the dragnet form the minority in Greece, while the naked divers form the 
majority in Turkey and are the only ones in the other countries—these, Savvas 
observes, suffer no harm. Why, then, does not Savvas state the conclusion 
to which every impartial person must come, that the harmless modes of sponge 
fishing should be encouraged and the harmful prohibited? He does imply 
this conclusion in the following statement: 
If the execution of these measures is for one reason or another impossible (and it is 
impossible, for the profits, which are the principal incentive of every trade, would be 
lost), then should the prohibition of machine diving be considered, not only for the 
salvation of a large number of persons from death and disease, but also for the honor 
and good name of the country. 
Regard for the life and health of the divers and for the good name not 
only of Greece but of all countries interested in the sponge fisheries, I share 
fully with Savvas; but I am amazed at the time required by most theoreticians, 
of whom Savvas is one, for recognition of the fact that no advance can be made 
by the execution of even a part of his measures—that their enforcement imposes 
the prohibition of machine diving. It is the same end at last, after all is said 
and done, i. e., the actual prohibition of the scaphander. 
While Professor Savvas was writing his report, the Naval Office detailed 
in January, 1904, a board, consisting of 12 members, to which belonged Savvas 
and deputies from Parliament from the sponge-fishing districts as well as naval 
officers, for the purpose of working out a project of law to govern sponge fishing 
with diving machines. The board finished its work within a month. The 
drafted law contains all that Savvas demands in his report, but has not been 
