How was "decompression sickness", otherwise known as "the bends" discovered?

Robert Boyle was a physicist, chemist, natural philosopher, and scientist born in Ireland in 1627.  While working with a viper subjected to a compressed atmosphere, followed by a decompressed state, Boyle noticed a bubble in the viper’s eye, causing extreme distress.  Conducting further research, Boyle learned about the process and effects on the body that compression and decompression had, which would become known as “Boyle’s Law.”  Called the “Father of Modern Chemistry”, Boyle was also a key member of the Royal Society, a group of the world’s brightest scientists.