DR NELSON’s Steam Inhaler 500ML,AvonGreen Wellness Soother for Vocal Cords, Headaches Relief and a Nasal, Sinus Decongestant – Excellent for Treating Chest Infections and Pains, Flu, Colds and Coughs

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This type and others had no heat source, rather they were simply filled with hot water and may be used with or without the addition of medication. g. the Pneumostat, widely used from the 1930s but still generally housed in surgeries and pharmacies) or hand bulb nebulizers such as the Parke-Davis Glaseptic, and Abbots’ Aerohaler (1948), which is clearly comparable to modern dry powder inhalers, and ultimately the pMDI in the 1950s ( Sanders, 2007, p 79). A similar device was developed and marketed by James Dewar in Scotland in the mid-1860s (Dewar, 1868, p 48). With its potential to take the treatment of respiratory illness out of hospital wards, physicians’ clinics and spa resorts, the Dr Nelson’s Inhaler offered a reliable form of self-medication against environmentally induced conditions such as bronchitis, catarrh, asthma, and more serious conditions such as the croup or consumption.

Moisturizing the airways: Steam can help to moisturize the airways, which can help to soothe a sore throat and make it easier to breathe. More inexpensive forms of therapy included smoking stramonium and other substances, but although these provided relief, they were also known to have narcotic side-effects. Conspicuous for its modesty and simplicity, the Dr Nelson Inhaler was one of the most widely produced, reproduced, and used inhalation devices of the period, a fact which is underlined by the sheer number and different styles of the inhaler present in the Wellcome Medical Collection housed in the Science Museum. As such the seemingly inconspicuous Dr Nelson’s Inhaler enables us to tell a far-reaching story of pulmonary and respiratory disease and their treatment in the nineteenth century. The patient would inhale through the mouthpiece, drawing in air from the second opening through the water and steam.This may have been one reason why the Dr Nelson’s Inhaler was popular among patients and practitioners. These inhalers were the most popular and enduring and were still commonly used right up to and throughout the twentieth century. In 1858 Jean Sales-Girons, well-known as the editor of the respected journal La revue médicale, introduced a portable version of this nebulising effect, using a small pump operated by the patient himself to generate the pressure required to produce the spray of medicated water which would be inhaled through a funnel-like mouthpiece ( Sales-Girons, 1861, p 10). Without these technologies, things like personalised recommendations, your account preferences, or localisation may not work correctly.

Nelson’s inhalers were used well into the 20th Century and even modern steam inhalation devices differ only slightly. While steam inhalers were replaced in conventional respiratory medicine by modern inhalation devices (nebulizers, metered dose inhalers and dry powder inhalers) from the mid-twentieth century onwards, Dr Nelson’s Inhaler is still produced today, but it is now more usually used by voice coaches. Unusual in that it profited immensely from both professional and commercial networks of acceptance, marketing, distribution and use, the Dr Nelson’s Inhaler enjoyed a remarkably speedy rise to fame in the medical marketplace of the 1860s and 1870s. Interestingly, technologies are still employed today for respiratory muscle training in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis using inspriatory/expiratory resistance devices ( Volska et al, 2003; Battaglia et al, 2009; van Winden et al, 1998).As was occasionally the practice at the regular meetings of the RMCS, a certain Dr Nelson presented his prototype for a new therapeutic device which he had designed and developed himself, at the close of business on 28 May 1861. This amount includes seller specified domestic postage charges as well as applicable international postage, dispatch, and other fees. Please note permission must be sought from the Curator for photographs of objects on display for the purposes of commercial or academic publications. Five years later, Charles Scudamore praises inhalation for not affecting the stomach of respiratory patients in addition to their pulmonary distress ( Scudamore, 1834, pp 136–7).