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James Glaisher’s 1862 account of balloon sickness

Altitude, decompression injury, and hypoxemia

From the Department of Neurology, University of Washington, Seattle.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Michael Doherty, Department of Neurology, University of Washington, Box 356465, Seattle, WA 98195; e-mail: mdoherty{at}u.washington.edu

In 1862, James Glaisher and Henry Coxwell ascended to 29,000 feet in an open hot-air balloon. During the ascent, Glaisher described marked neurologic compromises: appendicular and later truncal paralysis, blindness, initially preserved cognition, and subsequent loss of consciousness. The author examines Glaisher’s account of balloon sickness by comparing it with other balloonists’ observations and discussing it in the context of altitude sickness, decompression injury, and hypoxemia.