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.

    112/300 (page 100)
    Tuning-fork on forehead best heard on the left side. The dark patch on the right drum has disappeared. [Ext. ergotae hq. ii^^xx. ter die, 5 days.] Case XXXIX.—Auditory vertigo. F. W., aet. 30, had worked in the compressed air at the Blackwall Tunnel since the commencement—that is, for twelve months. He had not suffered from its effects. He had had pneumonia two years before; no syphilis or other illness. On July 9th, 1895, he completed an eight- hour shift at 2 p.m. (pressure 16 to 19! lbs.), and had left the works to go home. He had gone about two hundred yards, when he felt suddenly giddy, and would have fallen if he had not been caught by two other men ; this occurred at about 2.45. He was brought back to the works, and seen at 3 p.m. He could not walk at all by himself; if he attempted to do so he staggered to the right. He could not hear a watch with the right ear, even when touching, nor a loud tuning-fork on the right mastoid process, except with the left ear. Slight subjective noises in right ear. Nystagmus both lateral and rotatory. Sur- rounding objects appeared to him to be moving to the left, but irregularly so. [Ext. ergotae liq. 5j st.] He was at once taken to the medical air lock, and the pressure raised to 15 lbs. There was an immediate improvement in the vertigo, but none in the deafness. He could then stand by himself, and the nystagmus was not so pronounced. He was allowed to leak out, taking about one hour in the process. There was no increase of the vertigo in conse- quence of coming out. He was then sent home in a cab. [Ext. ergotae liq. ni^xx. quartis horis sumendum.] No disease of the viscera.