Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [259]
and the system generally will not be mentioned here, except to add the remark of Captain Wood that in Greenland, among his party, could be seen ulcerations, blisters, and other painful lesions of the skin. In Siberia the Russian soldiers cover their noses and ears with greased paper to protect them against the cold. The Laplanders and Samoiedes, to avoid the dermal lesions caused by cold (possibly augmented by the friction of the wind and beating of snow), anoint their skins with rancid fish oil, and are able to endure temperatures as low as -40 degrees F. In the retreat of the 10,000 Xenophon ordered all his soldiers to grease the parts exposed to the air.
Effects of Working in Compressed Air.--According to a writer in Cassier's Magazine, the highest working pressures recorded have been close to 50 pounds per square inch, but with extreme care in the selection of men, and corresponding care on the part of the men, it is very probable that this limit may be considerably exceeded. Under average conditions the top limit may be placed at about 45 pounds, the time of working, according to conditions, varying from four to six hours per shift. In the cases in which higher pressures might be used, the shifts for the men should be restricted to two of two hours each, separated by a considerable interval. As an example of heavy pressure work under favorable conditions as to ventilation, without very bad effects on the men, Messrs. Sooysmith & Company had an experience with a work on which men were engaged in six-hour shifts, separated into two parts by half-hour intervals for lunch. This work was excavation in open, seamy rock, carried on for several weeks under about 45 pounds pressure. The character of the material through which the caisson is being sunk or upon which it may be resting at any time bears quite largely upon the ability of the men to stand the pressure necessary to hold back the water at that point. If the material be so porous as to permit a considerable leakage of air through it, there will naturally result a continuous change of air in the working chamber, and a corresponding relief of the men from the deleterious effects which are nearly always produced by over-used air.
From Strasburg in 1861 Bucuoy reports that during the building of a bridge at Kehl laborers had to work in compressed air, and it was found that the respirations lost their regularity; there were sometimes intense pains in the ears, which after a while ceased. It required a great effort to speak at 2 1/2 atmospheres, and it was impossible to whistle. Perspiration was very profuse. Those who had to work a long time lost their appetites, became emaciated, and congestion of the lung and brain was observed. The movements of the limbs were easier than in normal air, though afterward muscular and rheumatic pains were often observed.
The peculiar and extraordinary development of the remaining special senses when one of the number is lost has always been a matter of great interest. Deaf people have always been remarkable for their acuteness of vision, touch, and smell. Blind persons, again, almost invariably have the sense of hearing, touch, and what might be called the senses of location and temperature exquisitely developed. This substitution of the senses is but; an example of the great law of compensation which we find throughout nature.
Jonston quotes a case in the seventeenth century of a blind man who, it is said, could tell black from white by touch alone; several other instances are mentioned in a chapter entitled "De compensatione naturae monstris facta." It must, however, be held impossible that blind people can thus distinguish colors in any proper sense of the words. Different colored yarns, for example, may have other differences of texture, etc., that would be manifest to the sense of touch. We know of one case in which the different colors were accurately distinguished by a blind girl, but only when located in customary and definite positions. Le Cat speaks of a blind organist, a native of Holland, who still played the organ
Effects of Working in Compressed Air.--According to a writer in Cassier's Magazine, the highest working pressures recorded have been close to 50 pounds per square inch, but with extreme care in the selection of men, and corresponding care on the part of the men, it is very probable that this limit may be considerably exceeded. Under average conditions the top limit may be placed at about 45 pounds, the time of working, according to conditions, varying from four to six hours per shift. In the cases in which higher pressures might be used, the shifts for the men should be restricted to two of two hours each, separated by a considerable interval. As an example of heavy pressure work under favorable conditions as to ventilation, without very bad effects on the men, Messrs. Sooysmith & Company had an experience with a work on which men were engaged in six-hour shifts, separated into two parts by half-hour intervals for lunch. This work was excavation in open, seamy rock, carried on for several weeks under about 45 pounds pressure. The character of the material through which the caisson is being sunk or upon which it may be resting at any time bears quite largely upon the ability of the men to stand the pressure necessary to hold back the water at that point. If the material be so porous as to permit a considerable leakage of air through it, there will naturally result a continuous change of air in the working chamber, and a corresponding relief of the men from the deleterious effects which are nearly always produced by over-used air.
From Strasburg in 1861 Bucuoy reports that during the building of a bridge at Kehl laborers had to work in compressed air, and it was found that the respirations lost their regularity; there were sometimes intense pains in the ears, which after a while ceased. It required a great effort to speak at 2 1/2 atmospheres, and it was impossible to whistle. Perspiration was very profuse. Those who had to work a long time lost their appetites, became emaciated, and congestion of the lung and brain was observed. The movements of the limbs were easier than in normal air, though afterward muscular and rheumatic pains were often observed.
The peculiar and extraordinary development of the remaining special senses when one of the number is lost has always been a matter of great interest. Deaf people have always been remarkable for their acuteness of vision, touch, and smell. Blind persons, again, almost invariably have the sense of hearing, touch, and what might be called the senses of location and temperature exquisitely developed. This substitution of the senses is but; an example of the great law of compensation which we find throughout nature.
Jonston quotes a case in the seventeenth century of a blind man who, it is said, could tell black from white by touch alone; several other instances are mentioned in a chapter entitled "De compensatione naturae monstris facta." It must, however, be held impossible that blind people can thus distinguish colors in any proper sense of the words. Different colored yarns, for example, may have other differences of texture, etc., that would be manifest to the sense of touch. We know of one case in which the different colors were accurately distinguished by a blind girl, but only when located in customary and definite positions. Le Cat speaks of a blind organist, a native of Holland, who still played the organ