170
The Last Resource
the blood circulation and to ll any air spaces in the body, such as
the lungs and sinuses, with an inert incompressible uid. Drastic
though this surgical evolution might seem, Cousteau thought that
volunteers for it would come from the tanks of those unfortunate
victims of lung cancer.
Even as Cousteau was making this fantastic prophesy, experi—
ments were in hand at the University of Leyden which might make
underwater man possible. In a typical experiment, Dr ]ohannes A.
Kylstra would place a mouse through an air—lock into a pressure
chamber lled with a liquid with a salt composition similar to that
of blood plasma and charged with the same concentration of
dissolved oxygen as in the air around us. At rst the animal would
try to escape out of the liquid but a grid set below the water level
prevented it from reaching the surface. After this initial agitation
the animal would then settle down, taking slow deep breaths of the
liquid. Breathing like this, it could survive for many hours in the
liquid, responding to taps on the walls of the chamber, and moving
about from time to time, before nally losing consciousness.
Curiously enough, the animals do not die because of a lack in
oxygen, but as a result of the accumulation of carbon dioxide. The
mouse that survived the longest—eighteen hours—was aided by the
addition of a chemical which helps to suppress the untoward effects
of high levels of carbon dioxide in animals.
From mice, Dr Kylstra and his colleagues moved on to dogs
.
which, because of their size, made the measurement of oxygen
uptake and carbon dioxide retention possible. The experiments
were carried out in a large pressure chamber with the air at a pressure
of ve atmospheres. The dog was placed in a tub of saline charged
with oxygen but, before being totally submerged, it was anaesthetized and cooled to about 32°C (to reduce its need for oxygen).
Once submerged, the dog would make vigorous efforts to breathe,
blowing out jets of water from its lungs. At the end of the experi—
ment, the dog was taken out of the tub and its lungs were emptied
of the liquid and inated with oxygen. Out of six dogs used in this
series of experiments, only one survived. It had breathed the saline
uid for twenty-four minutes. Appropriately, this sole survivor was
adopted by the Royal Netherland Navy submarine rescue vessel
Cerberus as its mascot.
In 1963, Dr Kylstra moved to the United States to continue his
research. There he carried out more sophisticated experiments
The Last Resource
the blood circulation and to ll any air spaces in the body, such as
the lungs and sinuses, with an inert incompressible uid. Drastic
though this surgical evolution might seem, Cousteau thought that
volunteers for it would come from the tanks of those unfortunate
victims of lung cancer.
Even as Cousteau was making this fantastic prophesy, experi—
ments were in hand at the University of Leyden which might make
underwater man possible. In a typical experiment, Dr ]ohannes A.
Kylstra would place a mouse through an air—lock into a pressure
chamber lled with a liquid with a salt composition similar to that
of blood plasma and charged with the same concentration of
dissolved oxygen as in the air around us. At rst the animal would
try to escape out of the liquid but a grid set below the water level
prevented it from reaching the surface. After this initial agitation
the animal would then settle down, taking slow deep breaths of the
liquid. Breathing like this, it could survive for many hours in the
liquid, responding to taps on the walls of the chamber, and moving
about from time to time, before nally losing consciousness.
Curiously enough, the animals do not die because of a lack in
oxygen, but as a result of the accumulation of carbon dioxide. The
mouse that survived the longest—eighteen hours—was aided by the
addition of a chemical which helps to suppress the untoward effects
of high levels of carbon dioxide in animals.
From mice, Dr Kylstra and his colleagues moved on to dogs
.
which, because of their size, made the measurement of oxygen
uptake and carbon dioxide retention possible. The experiments
were carried out in a large pressure chamber with the air at a pressure
of ve atmospheres. The dog was placed in a tub of saline charged
with oxygen but, before being totally submerged, it was anaesthetized and cooled to about 32°C (to reduce its need for oxygen).
Once submerged, the dog would make vigorous efforts to breathe,
blowing out jets of water from its lungs. At the end of the experi—
ment, the dog was taken out of the tub and its lungs were emptied
of the liquid and inated with oxygen. Out of six dogs used in this
series of experiments, only one survived. It had breathed the saline
uid for twenty-four minutes. Appropriately, this sole survivor was
adopted by the Royal Netherland Navy submarine rescue vessel
Cerberus as its mascot.
In 1963, Dr Kylstra moved to the United States to continue his
research. There he carried out more sophisticated experiments