Such groups will have been more immediately affected by the environmental pollution of the industrial age than wealthy patients around Regent’s Park, of course, and in acute cases those patients who were too poor to be able to self-medicate will also have had access to treatment by physicians like William Abbotts Smith who worked in Finsbury Dispensary and the Metropolitan Free Hospital, both in the immediate vicinity of Maw’s base to the East of the City of London. The bowl and glass tube of the inhaler would become very hot and was wrapped with towels and flannels to prevent burning of the patient's skin. This double-valved device was designed for steam inhalations - inhaling vapours to clear the body of respiratory ailments.

The former describes a pot with a perforated lid with a straw inserted for the inhalation of vapours, making it an ancient predecessor of the Nelson Inhaler; see Jackson, 2009, pp 31–37. Nevertheless, circumstantial evidence allows the possible inventors of Dr Nelson’s Inhaler to be narrowed down to two candidates. Indeed, the instigator behind Riker and Du Pont’s first pMDI in 1956, George Maison, explained that the origins of the project lay in his wish to simplify the treatment of his own asthmatic daughter, finding existing hand-held nebulizer devices unsuitable to outpatient use (see Grossmann, 1994, p 59). Dr Nelson’s Inhaler brought together professional dignity and acceptance, then, but also commercial know-how at an arm’s length from the medical professional himself, and finally a competitive pricing structure, making the device affordable both for public clinics or hospitals and private patients alike. Thomas Andrew seems to have retired in 1890 or 1891 because his name disappears from the list of members several years before his death is recorded in the Marylebone parish records for the year 1894.

Since Dr Nelson had clearly forfeited his ownership of the device, however, these commercial interests were legitimate and didn’t impact on the medical integrity of its inventor. This approach allows us to develop a narrative of respiratory illness as it was experienced by practitioners and patients alike. Alternatively, substances could be added separately to a small sponge placed inside the glass breathing tube. When infusions are required the ingredients should be placed in the Inhaler and Boiling Water poured upon them.

Boiling water would have been placed in the vessel and the patient would inhale the steam through a mouthpiece to relieve symptoms. Relieving congestion: Steam can help to loosen mucus and phlegm in the airways, which can help to relieve congestion. Every week we shine a light on a different object from our collections that you may not have seen before.This was in part because of safety aspects involved: early versions of the Siegle Inhaler were criticised for their dangerous unreliability. There were also virtually no maintenance issues, other than occasionally replacing the sponge (any sponge would do) and washing out the ceramic pot. The steam relaxes your vocal chords so much that to make them do anything too strenuous while they’re in this fragile state can hurt them. In mid-Victorian Britain, advertising was still considered the domain of ‘quack’ medicines, however. The emphasis on individual management of respiratory conditions made possible by the Dr Nelson’s Inhaler would later establish itself as a key component in the treatment of asthma patients from the mid-1950s onwards, as new pressurised metered dose inhalers (pMDIs) made self-treatment more reliable and effective ( Anderson, 2005, p 1143–1144).

g. Friar’s Balsam), all of which were widely available as over-the-counter preparations from apothecaries, druggists, and other unofficial retails units. The mouthpiece remained attached to the cork, which would be removed to pour in hot water, and other than soaking the sponge with the medicinal preparation the patient needed to do very little to gain relief. Following Beddoes’ lead, widespread experiments with oxygen and gas therapy in continental Europe, and France in particular (Lavoisier, Demarquay), showed a more widespread interest in the inhalation method around 1800. Rather than allowing one’s health to deteriorate, hence requiring costly treatment by physicians or in hospitals, many of the domestic handbooks and medical treatises point towards personal, preventative treatment in the comfort of the home.Some of the technologies we use are necessary for critical functions like security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and to make the site work correctly for browsing and transactions. A ceramic spout is set on one side of the inhaler and the opposite side is printed with black text that reads, "Dr Nelson's Improved Inhaler". In Germany, in 1862, the Berlin lung specialist Louis Waldenburg acquired one of Sales-Girons’ devices and adapted it with a design familiar from perfume sprays. As such, the Dr Nelson’s Inhaler can be seen as an important milestone in the development of modern outpatient treatment of asthma and other respiratory conditions.

This inhaler is on display with other examples in the Home Medicine display case at the George Marshall Medical Museum. It works by filling the inhaler with an infusion and boiling liquid then inhaling the steam deep into the lungs.

These 4 or 5-star reviews represent the opinions of the individuals who posted them and do not reflect the views of Etsy. He replaced the complicated and irregular pump in Sale-Girons’ device with Mayer’s uterus douche, which was to be operated by hand (Anon, 1862, p 330). In the same year in Berlin J Bergson, Georg Lewin’s successor in the Inhalatorium at Berlin University, advertised his ‘Hydrokonion’ nebulizer on which he had been experimenting for some years ( Bergson, 1862, p 389). Nelson’s Improved Inhaler” – designed to produce steam which when inhaled helped with chest infections and throat dehydration.