Oxygen gas as a remedy in disease.

  • Smith, Andrew H. (Andrew Heermance), 1837-1910.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oxygen gas as a remedy in disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    heat a current of atmospheric air is passed over it. This results in the absorption by the salt of a large portion of the oxygen which the air contains. The current of air is then shut off, and a current of superheated steam substituted. The steam withdraws from the manganate of soda the added quantity of oxygen, and carries it with it to a condenser from which the oxygen passes in a pure state into the gasometer. The salt i^ then subjected to the action of a second portion of air, followed again by a current of steam, and thus the process goes on indefinitely. The manganate of soda retains its activity, and loses nothing in weight, so that the only consumption is that of fuel. For use in the sick-room, the gas may be compressed into cylin- ders of copper or iron, and thus rendered conveniently portable. In localities sufficiently near to a factory, this is destined to supersede all other methods of supplying oxygen for medical pur- poses. The gas is perfectly pure, and the quantity which can be compressed into even a small cylinder is sufficient to meet the immediate requirements of any any case likely to occur. The method of administration of oxygen is very simple. The gas, being in a bag or in a gasometer, is conveyed to the mouth or nostrils of the patient by means of a flexible tube, terminating in a mouth-piece of glass, hard rubber, or ivory. This being taken into the mouth, or held to one nostril, the patient breathes the oxygen mingled with a greater or less proportion of common air, one or both nostrils being free for the admission of the latter. The proportion of gas is regulated by the size of the orifice through which it escapes. During expiration the rubber tube is compressed between the thumb and index-finger. When the patient is not able to do this for him- self, it may be done by an attendant, Avho, by watching the move- ments of the chest, soon catches their rhythm. I prefer this plan to the use of an inhaler with a complicated system of valves, which always offers an impediment to respiration.^ The quantity given Avill vary from one or two gallons daily, which is sufficient in some chronic cases, to eighty or one hundred gallons or more, which may be required in urgent dyspnoea. In chronic cases it should be given from a very small orifice, so that the inhal- ation of four or five gallons will occupy fifteen to thirty minutes. Feeble patients should take it in the recumbent position. The inhalations may be repeated morning and evening, or less frequently, as the case may demand. Some very striking results 1 Messrs. Geo. Barth & Co., of London, have patented a very neat gasometer for inhaling the gas when liberated from pressure in the iron bottles in which they supply it. The deodor- ized rubber bag will, however, be generally preferred on account of its portability and cheap- ness.