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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    minute, namely, -0076 gramme, equal to a little over one-tenth of a grain. The second formula selected from The Throat Hospital Pharma- copoeia for experiment was that for Vapor Thymolis, or thymol. The directions in this case are, to dissolve twenty grains of thymol by means of three drachms of spirit, and to make up with water to twenty-four drachms, or three ounces; a teaspoonful of the mixture to be added to a pint of water at 150° Fahr. Contrast for a moment the very large quantity of carbolic acid employed in the first inhalation—namely, 52-5 grains—with the miniite amount of the thymol, less than one grain, employed in the second inhala- tion. Thymol, though little volatile at ordinary temperatures, melts readily in hot water, and then becomes very diffusible. Of course, the greater part of the portion of a gi-ain contained in the 8750 grains of the pint of water was volatilized in the vapour ■ but what possible curative effect could be expected to result from so mmute a quantity of thymol, even if the whole were really inhaled ] When the substances added to hot water possess a high degree of volatihty, and are employed in considerable quantity, and wlien, at the same time, the temperature of the water is maintained by means of a lamp, vapour inhalation may be practised in some cases with benefit, especially in affections of the throat. In some instances the warm vapour of the steam itself, unmedicated, proves serviceable, although it is surprising how little water really passes over in most cases, except the inhalation be continued for a loner time and the temperature be maintained by the aid of a lamp. In the two experiments made with the vapor creasoti of The British Pharmacopceia, the loss of water amounted to only 10 and 12 cubic centimetres respectively, equal to about 2^ and 3 drachms. We may now pass on to treat of inhalation by steam. Steam, of course, does not differ essentially from the vapour of hot water' only that the vapour is generated faster and the temperature is higher. This temper-ature, however, is rapidly reduced by contact and intermixture with the air in which it becomes diffused, the vapour or steam with equal rapidity becoming condensed and re- duced to particles or atoms of sensible dimensions. In fact, by the time the steam reaches the air passages it is for the most part re- duced to the condition of an atomized liquid or spray. It will be well to refer here to the fact, which, however, is
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