ABSTRACT
There is little disagreement today that the symptoms and signs of decompression sickness (DCS) are a direct consequence of the effects of gas bubbles within the tissues and bloodstream. Robert Boyle reported the first case of DCS in 1670 when he described a bubble moving to and fro in the waterish humour of the eye of a viper after decompression. The snake was 'tortured furiously' by the formation of bubbles in the cblood, juices and soft parts of the body'.
