The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1898-06-25
cAIssoN DISEASE.
GouVerneur Physicians Having OpPortu-
mites to Study Rare Anment.

UOuVerneur Physicians Having OpPOrtu-
mites to Study a Rare Anment.
From the New York Sun: The doc
tors at Gouverneur hospital have had,
since the beginning of the work on the
East River bridge, at the foot of De-
lancey street, exceptional opportuni-
ties for studying that rare ailment
known as caisson disease or divers
paralysis. Four very serious cases
have been treated there, as we'll as
great many in the incipient stage. 1.-THE
first symptoms" said DR.. Huber, the
house surgeon, ARE very similar to
those of apoplexy. In one case the
man came into the hospital with every
outward symptom of having an apo
plectic stroke. He was unconscious,
the pupils of his eyes were unequally
distended, his respiration was stentori-
GUS. He remained unconscious for fif-
teen minutes and then recovered only
partially. When he did recover there
was anesthesia extending all through
the lower half of his body This is a
symptom usually betokening spinal
trouble. For short periods he became
utterly unconscious. During the time
he was conscious he seemed to be per-
fectly rational. I questioned him, and
found that he remembered nothing
whatever that had happened since he
had been attacked by the disease half
an hour after he left the caisson. After
he died we had an autopsy, and about
the only thing we gained from it was
that there had been a hemorrhage into
the heart muscles. The manifestations
of the disease are varied. In one case
patients right arm became absolute
ly rigid in such a position that the
hand was bent back near the chin.
Meantime, his left arm was working in
spasmodic commissions that could not
be controlled. The commonest symp-
tom is that of intense pain at the ears.
Our treatment here is to administer
stimulants, and to induce perspiration
as copiOusly as may be. In most cases
this works very well. 1 have heard
that over on the Brooklyn side, where
similar work is being done, the work.
men undertake to treat one another by
plunging the affected man into a hot
bath. 1t is their ignorant way of APP
plying the same remedy that we do
here, but hardly think that the de-
pressing effect of hot bath is a good
thing for the men in the state in which
victims of caisson disease are usually
found to be when they are picked up.
The theory Of the disease is that the
air pressure in the caisson prevents the
system from throwing off the injurious
gases of the body, particularly the nj
trogenous compounds. The pressure |
prevents the various organs of the body |
from discharging their functions to-
ward one another, and congestion, with
the symptoms of paralysis, results" 1t
will be remembered that Col. Washing
ton A. Roebling was obliged to give up
his work on the Brooklyn bridge for
a long time because of an attack Of
,aisson disease, and that his life was
endangered by it. Three hundred or
more men are employed from time to
line in the caissons at the foot of De-
ancey street, and there have been
twenty-five or thirty applications for
treatment at the hospital since the
work began.
Minute with Miss SprockIts