Inhalation of smoke and steam from therapeutic plants has
been used to treat chest problems since ancient times, but in Britain it really
grew in popularity from the nineteenth century. Not all of the inhalations
were what we might expect; tobacco and anti-asthma cigarettes including
anti-spasmodics such as stramonium were popular cures, despite what we now know
about the dangers of smoking with regards to chest diseases, and folk cures for
diseases such as whooping cough involved things like holding the head of the
infected child in a hole in the ground to breath in the scent of the earth,
getting them to breath the air in in gas works or coal mines, or breathing into
the mouths of various animals.
Inhalers first took off in the 1840s as a means of
anaesthesia, using ether or chloroform. Soon, however, they were being used
with different substances for the treatment of respiratory conditions,
including phthisis (tuberculosis) and asthma. Dr Nelson’s inhaler, launched in
the 1860s, is one of the most recognisable examples of the kinds of inhalers
which were developed in this period. Boiling water is poured into the bowl of
the ceramic inhaler, where it can be blended with soothing and medicinal
substances. The resulting vapour is inhaled normally through a glass spout,
taking the vapour directly into the lungs. Inhalations were quickly accepted as
an effective treatment by the medical community, being formularized in the
British Pharmacopoeia in 1867.
 |
| A Dr Nelson's inhaler, held in the LHSA Object Collection. Probably more effective, and certainly more pleasant, than breathing into a frog's mouth! |
In the twentieth century, the ideas behind inhalation were
further refined, leading to the clinical development of medicines which could
act as bronchodilators and steroids when inhaled, and improved methods of
delivering them. The Royal Victoria Dispensary occasionally recommended
‘inhalations’ for patients with breathing difficulties in the first
half of the century, showing the continued popularity of this method of
treatment. Asthma inhalers as we would recognise them today were first marketed
in 1969, after a team led by Scottish pharmacologist Sir David Jack developed
salbutamol, a bronchodilator, marketed as Ventolin.
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| Our inhaler on display as part of the Enhance, Access and Understand exhibition. |
We have a Dr Nelson’s inhaler on display as part of an
exhibition in the CRC, “Enhance, Access and Understand: The University of
Edinburgh and the Wellcome Trust”, which runs until 31st October.
This exhibition celebrates the recent Wellcome Trust Research Resources funded
projects undertaken at the Centre for Research Collections, including the RVH v
TB and Norman Dott case note cataloguing projects and the HIV/AIDs project at
LHSA. A series of talks will accompany the exhibition.
The exhibition is free, and is open Monday – Friday, 9-5 on
the 6th floor of the Main Library. The talks are also free to
attend. For more information on the exhibition and all of the talks, see http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/crc/events-exhibitions/events.
LHSA staff will be delivering two talks: Ruth and Emily will be talking about the conservation of the HIV/AIDs collection on 21st September, and Louise will be giving a presentation about the case note cataloguing projects on the 19th October. It's free to attend, but you'll need to register on Eventbrite. Hope to see you there!
Sources:
Hand, W.D. (2012) ‘Folk
Medical Inhalants in Respiratory Disorders*’, Medical History, 12(2),
pp. 153–163. doi: 10.1017/S002572730001303X.
Jackson, M. (2011)
‘“Divine Stramonium”: The Rise and Fall of Smoking for Asthma’, Medical
History, 54(2), pp. 171–194. doi: 10.1017/S0025727300000235.
Elisabeth Bennion, Antique Medical Instruments, (1979) (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DftZWlVnzH8C)
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