PARTS TO WHICH MEDICINES ARK APPUED. 51

most part, applications here are made use of for local purposes, as inasthma, chronic bronchitis, phthisis, &c. though occasionally to affectthe brain, the blood, the heart, &c. Dr. Myddleton (A PreliminaryDissertation illustrative of a new System of Pulmonary Pathology , 1825,)has advocated, in pulmonary diseases, the inhalation of substances (ascinchona, sulphate of iron, myrrh, &c.) reduced to an impalpable pow-der. The fumes ( suffitus ) of tar, balsam, resins, and other burningbodies, have also been employed in these cases. Sir Alexander Crichton has strongly recommended tar vapour; the method of using which isthe following:—The tar employed should be that used in the cordageof ships ; to every pound of which half an ounce of carbonate of potashmust be added, in order to neutralize the pyroligneous acid generallyfound mixed with the tar, the presence of which will necessarily excitecoughing. The tar thus prepared is to be placed in a suitable vesselover a lamp, and to be kept slowly boiling in the chamber during thenight as well as the day. The vessel, however, ought to be cleansedand replenished every twenty-four hours, otherwise the residuum may beburned and decomposed,—a circumstance which will occasion increasedcough and oppression on the chest.

The inhalation of aqueous vapour ( halitus ,) either alone or with othersubstances, is oftentimes useful in various affections of the lungs and ofthe throat, &c. The apparatus for this purpose may be that proposed byDr. Gairdner (Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. xix.;) or Dr.Mudge’s inhaler, or in the absence of these, a teapot, or basin with aninverted funnel. In many asthmatic cases the difficulty of breathing isso groat, that the patient cannot close the mouth around the tube, espe-cially if the latter be small, without exciting a sense of impendingsuffocation. In such instances I have found the only easy and practica-ble method of enabling the patient to inhale is, by holding the mouthover hot water contained in a basin or tea-cup. Various narcotic andemollient herbs are sometimes added to the water, but I suspect withoutcontributing in any way to its efficacy. The vapour of hot vinegar, ofsulphuric ether, of iodine, of camphor, and of other volatile bodies, isoccasionally employed in pulmonary diseases. The vapour of iodinemay be conveniently inhaled by means of a double-necked glass bottle

(fig. 25,) into which we introduceabout an inch of water, to which afew drops of the tincture of iodinehave been added. Through one ofthe necks a straight glass tube passes,and dips under the surface of thewater. The other neck has a shortcurved glass tube passing through it,by which the patient inhales. In theabsence of a clouble-necked bottle wemay use a common wide-mouthedbottle (fig. 26 ,) the cork of which hastwo perforations, through which passthe glass tubes. Chlorine gas maybe inhaled in a similar manner, usinga solution of the gas, or of chloride of lime, instead of the tincture ofiodine. If oxygen, or nitrous oxide, be inhaled, the most easy and con-

Inhaling bottles .