230 THE ANALYST. FLEUSS’S SYSTEM OF DIVING AT THE ROYAL POLYTECHNIC. THE note by Mr. Howell, the secretary to the Royal Polytechnic Institution, on the new system of diving introduced by Mr. Fleuss, has led the writer of this annotation to make a second series of observations on the process, and we are much indebted to the directors of the Institution, as well as to Mr. Fleuss himself, for the facilities they have afforded us.At our request Mr. Fleuss on Saturday last remained under the water precisely one hour, and would have remained longer on his own account but that the extreme cold of the water rendered his hands, which were not covered, incapable of ready movement. He had been a few minutes in his apparatus, and shut off from the outer air, before he made his descent, We took his pulse before he entered the water, at 6.40 P.M., found it steady and good, at 68 per minute, and his temperature natural.He descended to the bottom of the twelve-foot tank, and remained there until 7.40 P.M., when he signalled by the cord that he was about to ascend. During the time he was immersed he moved about as he liked, picked up coins, and we could see that occasion- ally he was sitting or partially recumbent.After he came out of the water five minutes elapsed before the helmet and ori-nasal tube could be removed, so that he was actually shut off from the external air one hour and ten minutes at least. Immediately on coming out of the water his pulse was beating at 120 per minute, but this he himself attributed, and we have no doubt correctly, to the fact that he was laden with a weight of 116 pounds (twenty in the boots and ninety-six on the shoulders) in order to keep down under the water, and that it is no easy task to carry that weight up the ladder from the tank.So soon as the helmet and dress were removed we took the pulse again, and found it beating at 90 per minute, the temperature in the mouth being down to 94” Fahr, He said he was perfectly comfortable, but felt cold.At the end of 27 minues after Mr. Fleuss had been out of the water his pulse was at 80 per minute, and his mouth temperature at 960 Fahr. Twenty minutes later still the pulse had come down to 68, and the temperature of the mouth had risen to 97O F. The temperature of the water in the tank was 490 at the surface, and of the surrounding air 51° F.Mr. Fleuss is an Englishman, short, slight, but well built, and full of courage and enthusiasm. He has been an officer in the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s service, and has been one year making prepara- tions for this remarkable experiment. His apparatus, which is of rough construction, was made with his own hands, and though for the present he is silent as to its mode of action, he says that nothing about it is more curious than its simplicity. It is quite certain that he has contrived to carry down with him in his diver’s dress a sufficient supply of air-food for perfect breathing during very long periods of time, and it is equally clear that he has some means of retaining the expired air, for during the whole time he was in the water not a bubble of air escaped from him that we could detect.Not to be too curious, the experiment promises to be in all points of view, physiological as well as practical, of great and lasting value.-Lancet. The breathing was easy, and the face only a little pale.