The inhalation treatment of diseases of the organs of respiration including consumption / by Arthur Hill Hassall.

Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The inhalation treatment of diseases of the organs of respiration including consumption / by Arthur Hill Hassall. 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 absorbed by the skin of the lips and the mucous membrane of the nose, mouth, and fauces; so that it becomes extremely doubtful whether any portion of this antiseptic ever reaches the air cells of the lungs. This doubt is greatly strengthened by the fact, that the sputa incases of phthisis, expectorated shortly after inhalation by means of oro-nasal inhalers, never, so far as my experience goes, smell of carbolic acid ; neither have I ever found that acid present in the sputa in any notable quantity. Another fact corroborative of this view may here be cited. The air expired after each inha- lation of the carbolic acid was passed through distilled water, which was afterwards tested for the acid, the faintest trace only being discovered. The next antiseptic experimented with was creasote. INo volumetric chemical process being known for the quantitative estimation of this compound, the gravimetric method had to be pursued, which, however, furnishes results sufficiently precise for the purpose. ■ i i i From half a gramme, or 500 milligrammes, of creasote, inhaled with water for one hour, 430 milligrammes were recovered, the creasote being dissolved out of the sponge by means of alcohol; from the same quantity of creasote dissolved in spirits of wine there were recovered in the first experiment 406 and m the second 410 milUgrammes; while, lastly, from the same quantity of creasote dissolved in spirits of ether there were obtained 416 and 406 milligrammes respectively. These experiments show, as was the case with the phenol, that upwards of four-fifths of the creasote used remain in the sponge of the inhaler, while of the re- maining small quantity some is lost in the inhaler itself, some is absorbed by the mucous membrane of the nose and mouth, while part is lost during the evaporation of the spirits of wme and ether employed as the solvents of the creasote. The results of the experiments with thymol may now be detailed. • j.i « 4. There were recovered after an hour's inhalation, m the hrst ex- periment, 412, and in the second 466, out of the 500 milligrammes employed, and which were dissolved in ether. From the same amount of thymol dissolved in spirits of wine, there were obtained 450 and 466 milligrammes. It is therefore scarcely possible to conceive, that this antiseptic can, as at present employed, exert any beneficial effect.
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