A portable bath, chiefly applicable for medical purposes / [Josiah Webber].

  • Webber, Josiah.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A portable bath, chiefly applicable for medical purposes / [Josiah Webber]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    i Webbers Portable Path, Chiefly Applicable for .1 fedical Purposes. and reading desk ; (n) binding screws for electric wires ; A1 is the section of apron piece ; A3 aperture for the head ; L, perforations in the inner wall of the bath for the extraction of the vitiated air, which is drawn through the spaces Y between the two walls, and conveyed by the channel at the bottom of the bath to the furnace 5 chamber, where it is consumed : (<7) is a pipe conveying hot air from the foot to the head of the bath (r) is a valve for regulating same (R) is the leg rest attached by a runner to the front of seat, (u) is an upcast jet and rose ; (t) is a lever by which the bather can work the foot-bellows placed outside the bath for driving cold air through the ice-pail. Q is the drying closet for airing linen, or, for drying clothes, 10 perforated trays for holding same. G is the spinal apparatus, by means of which hot and cold air can be applied to the spinal centres. It consists of an upright rod (r. upon which are placed two moveable runners vl and vn) fitted with screws, by which they can be secured to the rod at any part of the spine requiring treatment: to these runners are attached two 15 pipes, one from the hot air chamber, the other from the coil fitted in the ice chamber, enabling the operator to apply heat to one section of the spinal cord, thereby increasing the energy of the nervous ganglia ; and cold to another part of the spine, thereby lessening its activity, at the same time that the patient is undergoing the ordinary bath treatment. The difficulty oxperienced in localizing the action of heat and cold when 20 applied to the spinal ganglia in the usual way is overcome by the peculiar construction of the appliances vo and x, which are attached to the hot and cold air pipes :—they are small chambers, about 3 inches in diameter, fitted with a double pipe in one, and a waive pipe in the other : at the top of the chamber is fixed an outlet pipe, so that the air having been projected against the spine is forced out of the chamber into the pipe 25 at the top, and is passed away out of the bath, without being allowed to play upon any other of the spinal centres than those to which the treatment is specially directed. There is an opening down the centre of the back-rest, through which the appliances are brought close up to the back of the bather. The inlet and outlet pipes (y. and z. are telescopic, to allow of the adjustment of 30 the appliances to any part of the spine. Enlarged details of these spinal appliances are given on drawing No. 7. Electricity is applied to the patient by means of the spinal apparatus just described : one electrode is applied to the spine, by being attached to one of the runners (r1), which is screwed to the vertical rod (v) ; the other electrode is attached to the jointed 35 arm (p) and applied to any other part of the body as may be required, or the hand electrode (s) may be used instead ; the wires are fixed in the bath, and carried to binding screws (m) at the side of the bath, and when required the operator has but to attach the wires of the battery or induction coil to the binding screws, and the whole is ready for action. 40 Over the head of the bather is fixed a small copper rose for water (Z1) but should it be inexpedient or dangerous to use water, the head can be cooled by air brought from the ice-pail and projected from the copper coronal, or ring, (Z1) which is per¬ forated with needle holes on the underside. The small handrose hung at the side of bath marked (e) is intended for applying 45 water, or air to the front part of the body and to the lower extremities ; it is attached by an india-rubber pipe to the air pipe (01), or to the water pipe (m1). Drawing No. 5 is an enlarged section of the head of the bath, or canopy : the scale is two inches to one foot. A is the front of the canopy ; and B the back : C water¬ proof roller blinds of Willesden cloth, or other suitable material ; D perforated ceiling ; 50 E bracket of punka ; F fir bearers ; G passage way to II, smoke chamber in roof; I passage way round J, hot and cold water cisterns ; K extraction pipe for smoke leading to chimney, or the outer air ; L shower ; M douche ; N wave ; O. P water pipes. The only feature of novelty in this arrangement—beyond the general combina¬ tion of parts, is the way in which the tobacco smoke—if the bather be a smoker— 55 is collected in the roof of the canopy, and drawn off without fouling the air of the apartment in which the bath is standing. Smoking in a bedroom is not wholesome, and the odour of stale tobacco-smoke is extremely offensive, if not injurious to an