Observations upon the construction and use of the respirator : an instrument for facilitating respiration, to be worn on the face by persons suffering from coughs, consumption, asthma, and other affections of the chest / [Julius Jeffreys].
- Date:
- 1836
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations upon the construction and use of the respirator : an instrument for facilitating respiration, to be worn on the face by persons suffering from coughs, consumption, asthma, and other affections of the chest / [Julius Jeffreys]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![is due to its humidity, as well as its wanuth; and con- sumptive persons in general derive benefit from a moderately humid as well as a temperate atmosphere. The above is an outline of the reflections which led to the construction of the Respieator, an instrument which, it is ho]5ed, mil prove of much use in affections of the lungs, by effectually guarding them against the action of cold. In searching after all means at command for effecting this object,—although the limgs cannot be clothed like the smface of the body, nor a stock of warm air carried about by a person,—a source of warmth presents itself, abundant in amoimt if the heat can but be caught, and the rightful property of the lungs, inasmuch as it is generated by the hmgs themselves. The lungs are continually gi^dng out the wannth which might save them from destruction, but to no piupose, for it is carried out in the breath, and lost in the air around. The air which issues forth at each expfration, contains more heat than enough to warm the following in- spired air. To transfer the warmth from the former to the latter becomes the grand desideratum, for which object some instrument must be employed. To do it successfidly, this instniment must be worn on the face: it must catch mth rapidity all or nearly all the heat of the breath as it issues forth: it must store this heat up, and deliver it to the fi’csh air next di'a\\Ti in, in order that it may enter the mouth or nostrils comfortably warm. Wliile these positive properties are necessary in the in- strument, it must possess, also, certain negative ones, with- out which it coidd not be employed. In the fu’st place, while di’awing from the air its heat, the instrument must not, in any appreciable degree, impede the exit of the air; and in giving heat to the retiuning current, it nnrst not obstrarct its entrance: respiration, in short, must not be rendered at all more laboriorrs. In the next place,—if possible, the vibrations of the air, which constitirte sormd, mrrst not be checked, for the instrument orrght not to obstnrct the voice in speech. Again, it mirst not be of any larger size than can be made to answer the pirrpose, since it has to be worn on the face. Lastly, it must be very simple, durable, easily employed, and moderate in price. Some nicety of con- strrrctiorr is reqirisite for combirrirrg srrccessftdly so opposite properties in a small and simple instrmnent. The following deductions from the known properties of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21948525_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
