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.
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