Introductory Remarks to the Closing Session [and Discussion]

After listening to the papers and the discussions during the meeting, it seems obvious empirically, whatever one might think a priori, that hyperbaric physiology and medicine in fact is a ‘subject’, in the sense of catching the scientific imagination, and recruiting new workers. Perhaps there is some analogy with another new subject, toxicology; there was a doubt there, too, whether it constituted a coherent area of work, but again, experience showed that, despite widely different backgrounds, toxicologists have increasingly found it valuable to meet together both nationally and internationally, and to undertake jointly matters such as training. One can also see a need for maintaining the tradition of skill in hyperbaric work; it takes a considerable time to acquire, and the occasions when it will be needed are not predictable. Even with present practice, there is a need: Dr Macdonald asked at one point whether, bearing in mind the neurological disturbances that very deep diving seems to cause, together with the other physiological stresses, there was a comparable clinical or industrial procedure that exposes men to a comparable experience; Dr Bevan raised the question whether the addition of an anaesthetic gas (N2) to a helium-oxygen mixture introduced a new principle, that of giving a drug to enable an industrial task to be done. As regards future work, there was also discussion as to the relative values of work on animal and on human subjects. In all such issues, accurate answers can only be hoped for if there exists a body of informed opinion, with direct experience, to give advice. Perhaps, too, the courage of the submariner, of the diver, and of such experimental subjects as we saw in Dr Bennett’s ATLANTIS IV film, is of a kind that those exposed to it never quite lose their interest in such work. The preliminary remarks by the chairmen of the sessions, and the discussions, have all endorsed its importance.