Compressed air illness, or, So-called caisson disease / by E. Hugh Snell.

  • Snell, E. Hugh.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Compressed air illness, or, So-called caisson disease / by E. Hugh Snell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    105/300 (page 93)
    deltoid just above its insertion and the bone ; tender on pressure. Temperature normal. Aug. 22nd : Very much better. Occasional slight catching pain in the left arm. Swelling in arm is still present, but is smaller. General health good. Aug. 24th : Slight pain still in left arm. Only a little thickening remains about the insertion of the deltoid. Aug. 28th : Well. Case XXXI.—Bends. Swelling near knee. Re- compression. J. H., set. 39, has previously worked in compressed air for two weeks in Glasgow. Examined and passed for compressed air work at the Blackwall Tunnel Aug. 21st, 1895. It was noted that he had very grey hair (he states that the greyness came on before he was 20 years old ; his father was grey early, and his brother's children, under five, are beginning to have grey hairs!), and also that he smelt of spirits ; against the use of these while working in the air he was warned. He commenced his first shift at 10 p.m.; came out at 4.30 for breakfast; half an hour afterwards he had a pain in both knees. Seen at 5 a.m., and put into medical lock, and allowed to leak out. [$l lin. terebinth acet. c lin. aconiti aa.] i p.m., pain worse again. [Pil. ipecac, co. gr. v. St.] 5 p.m., slightly easier, but has had no sleep. Has slight tumefaction on inner side of left knee. Sent to Seamen's Hospital. Aug. 27th : Came out of hospital feeling nearly well. Was treated there by morphia injections. No swelling of left knee now. On the lower and inner side of this joint is a small blue (? ecchymotic) patch half an inch in diameter. Aug. 31st: Slight stiffness in both knees.