deed,
a study of the published evidence bearing upon the subject furnishes
surprising results. Ribeiro wrote, in 1685, that a diver could remain
below while two credos were repeated : "Il s'y tient l'espace de deux credo."1 In
his interesting account of the Ceylon fishery, Per-cival stated that
the usual length of time for divers to remain under water "does not
much exceed two minutes, yet there are instances known of divers who
could remain four or even five minutes, which was the case with a
Caffre boy the last year I visited the fishery. The longest instance
ever known was of a diver who came from Anjango in 1797, and who
absolutely remained under water full six minutes."2 Le Beck says, that in 1797, he saw a diver from Karikal remain down for the space of seven minutes.3 The merchant traveler, Jean Chardin, reported in 1711 that the divers remain up to seven and a half minutes under water: "Les plongeurs qui pèchent les perles sont quelquefois jusqu'à demi-quart-d'heure sous l'eau."4
In
1667, the Royal Society of London addressed an inquiry on this subject
to Sir Philiberto Vernatti, the British Resident at Batavia in the East
Indies. Vernatti's reply gave certain details regarding the Ceylon
fishery, but did not touch upon the length of diving because, as he
stated, he could not "meet with any one that can satisfy me, and being
unsatisfied myself, I cannot nor will obtrude anything upon you which
may hereafter prove fabulous; but shall still serve you with truth."5
Two years later, and presumably after investigation, Vernatti reported
: "The greatest length of time that pearl-divers in these parts can
continue under water is about a quarter of an hour ; and that by no
other means than custom ; for pearl-diving lasts not above six weeks,
and the divers stay a great while longer at the end of the season than
at the beginning."6
The anatomist Diemerbroeck relates7
the case of a pearl diver who, under his own observation, remained half
an hour at a time under water while pursuing his work ; and this was
seriously adopted without comment by John Mason Goode in his "Study of
Medicine."8 Ibn Batuta, "the Doctor of Tangier," wrote about 1336 that "some remain down an hour, others two hours, others less."9 A still earlier writer,
