Further Observations and Researches on Fleuss's System of Diving and Living in Irrespirable Atmospheres ¹

Abstract

YOU will find in NATURE, vol. xxi. p. 62, the experiments I made in relation to the process of living under water by means of the Fleuss apparatus. I there related what I had observed after Mr. Fleuss had been under water at a very low temperature for the period of an hour. A few days later I made another observation on a different plan. I filled the large diving bell at the Polytechnic with carbonic acid gas, displacing every portion of air. I then let the bell go down ten inches under the water, so as to put the gas under pressure, and all the while I kept a stream of gas pouring into the bell, and causing a constant bubbling of gas out of the mouth of it into the water. This done, Mr. Fleuss put on his dress and helmet and entered the bell. He sat in it over the water for the period of twenty minutes, the pressure and constant stream of gas being maintained. At the end of twenty minutes I signalled to him to come out, and had the bell brought round to the side of the tank. He returned into the air quite unaffected. His pulse, which was beating at 72° in the minute when he went in, was at 68° when he came out, and quite steady. His temperature in the mouth, which was at 98.2° F. when he went in, was at 97.5° when he came out, and in a few minutes was at its natural standard. He said he had felt no oppression whatever, and would have remained an hour inthe gas if I had allowed him.