A text-book of diseases of the nose and throat / by Francke Hunt ington Bosworth.

  • F. H. Bosworth
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book of diseases of the nose and throat / by Francke Hunt ington Bosworth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    in a continuous stream, reaching pretty thoroughly the whole of the mucous membrane of the two chambers. The value of the douche, as a means of applying cleansing fluids to the nasal cavity in certain cases, cannot be denied, especially in atrophic rhinitis, and perhaps syphilitic necrosis, but in the ordi- nary chronic inflammation with hypertrophy it is not only of no permanent value but may be mischievous, as first suggested by Eoosa, who reported a number of cases of acute otitis media resulting from its use, attributing this accident to the entrance of fluids into the middle ear. I think it is to be borne in mind here that the very large proportion of patients affected by hypertrophic rhinitis of long standing suffer from a mild form of middle-ear disease. This acts as a predisposing cause of the acute form, which probably is pre- cipitated by the use of the douche. Considering this danger, and the fact that the douche accomplishes little if any good in hypertrophic rhinitis, its use in this affection should be condemned unreservedly. There is no such danger in atrophic rhinitis, and I strongly advise the douche in this disease. i ^ Atomizers. The successful treatment of catarrhal affections being regarded as largely dependent upon the extent to which the parts inight be reached by the medicament used, naturally led to the plan of reducing the solu- tions to a state of fine atomization, that they might be carried into the sinuous passages of the nasal cavities or thrown into the air passages below. In view of the very large extent to which the use of atomizers has grown in late years in the treatment of diseases of the upper air passages, it becomes a matter not only of historical but also of practical interest, to trace their development from the cruder devices of former days to the perfect instruments now provided for our use. The system was first put in practice at certain of the mineral springs of Europe when patients inhaled the spray from minuute jets of water projected against the walls of the chambers. Portable atomizers carrying out the same principle followed in due order, and have been modified by a succession of scientists, until finally Dr. Sass, of New York, constructed the atomizing tubes generally known as Sass' tubes. These are made on the Bergson principle, that if a current of air be driven through one tube placed at right angles to a similar tube which leads to a reservoir of water, a vacuum will be created by which the water will be drawn up into the vertical tube, until, meeting the current of air, it is broken up into a fine spray. They are of heavy barometer glass tubing, but instead of the two tubes being placed
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