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Show Helium Suggested as Preventive of "Bends" WASHINGTON. Helium, now used to lift men into the air, may find a new use in treating those who go underground under-ground or under the sea and who, working under compressed air, contract caisson disease, it appears ap-pears from recent investigations on helium's solubility in the blood, reported by Drs. J. A. Hawkins and C. W. Shilling of the experi- mental diving unit at the United States navy yard here. j The "bends," an exquisitely j painful malady which affects workers who are exposed to air at high pressure, is caused by the i blood's taking up a great deal of i nitrogen from the air. i |