A new method of inhalation for the treatment of diseases of the lungs / by W.H. Spencer.

  • Spencer, W. H. (William Henry), 1837-1910.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new method of inhalation for the treatment of diseases of the lungs / by W.H. Spencer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lO gaining benefit thereby. It has been shown by Dr. Hassell * as the result of numerous experiments, that when such things as carbolic acid, creasote, and thymol are used with this inhaler four-fifths of the antiseptic is recoverable from the sponge of the inhaler after many hours' use. It was hardly necessary, indeed, to prove this by experiment in the face of the well-known fact that these substances are very low down in the scale of volatility. The same observer has also shown experi- mentally that even when such volatile liquids as eucalyptol and oil of turpentine are used with an oro- nasal inhaler the amount of vapour passing into the trachea is next to nothing, and this for the simple reason that the amount of vapour available for inspira- tion by this method is next to nothing. It is incredible that any one with the smallest knowledge of the physics of respiration could seriously expect any remedial results at all in the interior of the lungs from the evapo- ration of fifteen or tw^enty drops of a volatile oil placed on the sponge of an oro-nasal inhaler.f Yet the principles and conditions which have to be taken into account and provided for in the practical application of any such method of treatment as that by Inhalation are few and simple, and to be found easily if only they be looked for where they lie—even in the facts and laws of chemistry and physiology and physics. * The Inhalation Treatment of Diseases of the Organs of Respiration, including Cofisumption, by Arthur Hill Hassell, M.D.Lond., &c. Longmans, Green, & Co., London. 1885. t The vapour of most of the volatile oils commonly used for Inhalation is intensely odorouc. A very minute quantity of the vapour from these oils will create an odour out of all proportion to the amount of vapour causing the odour. And this may lead to, and doubtless has led to, fallacies.