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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    vapour arising by evaporation from the liquid on the sponge. The remedy has been spread out over large surfaces of cotton or other material and allowed to evaporate, so that the vapour thus diffusing in the atmosphere might be inhaled along with the air during natural respiration; and again, the remedy has been atomised by means of a steam spray-producer, and both steam and spray have been presented to the patient's mouth for Inhalation. These and other modes, devised with a like intent, have been more or less in use for the local treatment of diseases of the lungs by Inhalation. Yet Inhalation, as practised in any of these its modes, has not hitherto fulfilled the early promise. Indeed, the method may be said to have failed completely as a method of local treatment for affections seated in the interior of the lungs. Inhalation has sometimes given good results when used to treat locally diseased states of the larynx and upper air-passages. But all attempts hitherto made to influence diseased conditions having their seat below the trachea and in the interior of the lungs by means of Inhalation in any of its modes have been barren of results. So that the treatment of diseases of the lungs by Inhalation has fallen a good deal into disuse and no little into disrepute. This being so, is it to be concluded, then, that the principle of the method is at fault; that the object and purpose of Inhalation—to bring remedies into direct contact with diseased parts in any and every situation within the lungs by the aid of the natural respiratory mechanisms—is unattainable ? By no means. There is an alternative explanation of the failure of Inhalation, as heretofore practised. The fault may lie, not in the
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