Lectures on the compressed air bath and its uses in the treatment of disease / by C. Theodore Williams.

  • Williams, Charles Theodore, 1838-1912.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lectures on the compressed air bath and its uses in the treatment of disease / by C. Theodore Williams. 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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    fairs and places of public amusement, to tlie extraordinary results of Glaisher's and Coxwell's adventurous voyages, where the reduction of the barometric pressure to 9^ inches showed an elevation of 29,000 feet; and it is possible that even a greater altitude, and correspond- ing diminution of pressure, was reached by these aeronauts, after Mr. Glaisher had lost consciousness, and could no longer register observations. The rapid ascent of balloons, the difficulties of steering, and the im- possibility of remaining long in them, render this form of reducing pressure of little use for therapeutics. The most usual method, and the one best adapted for our purposes, is residence at high alti- tudes ; and fortunately, among the various mountain-ranges, we have, in all latitudes, an abundant choice of sites at various elevations and exposures, where wo can try the influence of rarefied atmospheres on invalids. While at Davos (5,200 feet) we get a diminution of 5 inches in the barometric pressure, at La Paz, the capital of Bolivia (13,500 feet), it amounts to 12 inches, and we have examples of every inter- vening grade of elevation. The heights principally used for treatment range from 5,000 to 10,000 feet, giving barometric pressure of from 25 inches to 20.5 inclies, and a diminution of from 5 inches to 9.5 inches. It is not the object of these lectures, to consider the effects of rarefied air in the human organism, which has been dealt with else- where (Treatment of Phthisis by Residence at High Altitudes, Transactions of the International Congress, 1881), but rather to treat of the second subject, namely, air at increased pressurns, such as is to be obtained in compressed air baths. We know that the air of minea is considerably condensed, and that, if a shaft could be sunk 45 miles deep into the earth, the air at the bottom of it would be as dense as quicksilver; but no mines have been made deep enough to modify barometric pressure to the inverse extent of that observed on moun- tains, and our principal results from compressed air come from the employment of diving bells and diving apparatus and pneumatic tubes, used in the construction of piers and bridges, of arches, and the like. In many of these enterprises men have worked, for hours at a time, at a pressure of from 2\ to 4^ atmospheres, and, when proper precau- tions were observed, apparently without harm. I am largely indebted to the great and masterly work of Pression Barometrique, by Paul Bert, for many of the facts cited in this lecture. The amount of evidence which these experiments afford as to the influence of compressed air on the human body is so extensive, and bears so directly on our present subject, that I make no apology for citing some of the leading facts, which we shall find useful in three ways; first, showing the limits of endurance of the human body; second, in demon- strating what steps of the process are dangerous, and what are not so ; third, as indicating the means by which peril can be averted. The pressure of air in diving bells depends entirely on the depth of water reached, which is sometimes considerable ; but as the difficulty of renewing the supply of air was great, these instruments were soon replaced by diving dresses and pneumatic lubes. The symptoms noticed on descending in bells to a depth of about 30 feet, were pains in the ears, noises and even deafness, a sensation of tightness, as if the head were bound with a band of iron. These phenomena only accompanied rapid descent, and ceased entirely when the bottom was reached. The ascent was generally described as more agreeable, but according to Colladon there was a feeling, as if the bones of the skull were separating ; no changes in the pulse or respi- ration were noticed. Trigct's invention of the pneumatic tube was soon applied largely for the construction of bridges, piers, etc.; and inasmuch as