IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR HEATING OR COOLING PORTIONS OF THE HUMAN OR ANIMAL BODY FOR MEDICAL OR SURGICAL PURPOSES, APPLICABLE PARTLY ALSO FOR SPRINKLING
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Phillips Thompson, of the Firm of Wm. P.
Thompson and Co., Patent Agents, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the
County of Lancaster, 323, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, and
Berridge Street, Leicester, in the County of Leicester, Civil Engineer,
for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO APPARATUS FOR
HEATING OR COOLING PORTIONS OF THE HUMAN OR ANIMAL BODY FOR
MEDICAL OR SURGICAL PURPOSES, APPLICABLE PARTLY ALSO FOR SPRINKLING."
A communication from abroad by Joseph Leiter, of Vienna, in the Dominions
of Austria.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Phillips Thompson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th December 1880.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Firm of W. P. Thompson and Co.,
Patent Agents, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, 323,
High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, and Berridge Street, Leicester,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING
in the County of Leicester, Civil Engineer.
TO APPARATUS FOR HEATING OR COOLING PORTIONS OF THE HUMAN OR ANIMAL
BODY FOR MEDICAL OR SURGICAL PURPOSES, APPLICABLE PARTLY ALSO FOR
SPRINKLING." A communication from abroad by Joseph Leiter, of Vienna, in the
Dominions of Austria.
The following is a literal translation of the Specification sent me by
my correspondent.
"The use of this apparatus is to remove warmth from or supply warmth to the
bodies of men or animals, or parts of these bodies, regularly and uninterruptedly for
any desired length of time, by means of the passage of cold or warm water through
metal pipes covering the body or some part of it.
"The main part of this apparatus consists of flexible tin or tinned lead pipes of
various sections, such as round, oval, flat, which are either disposed in the form of
coils or bent backwards and forwards, so as to cover the sick body or part to

page_text: which they can thus be conveniently applied, the folds being held loosely together
by means of string.
"
Through a pipe bent or coiled to the form of the part to which it is applied,
warm or cold water, according to the object which it is desired to attain, is passed
from an elevated vessel by means of an india-rubber tube, and then, after having
traversed the metal pipe, this water is discharged into a suitable collector.
"The effect of removing or adding warmth can be increased by a more rapid
flow of the water, which can be produced by raising the reservoir, and can be
reduced by reducing the flow of the water by means of a stop-cock placed at the
end of the india-rubber tube or at the discharge end of the metal pipe itself.
"In this way, by the use of cold water, warmth can be removed from the body
or from the smallest part of it by means of what may be called self-action for
bours together uninterruptedly, and with but slight variation in temperature, and
by the use of warm water warmth can be imparted.
A regular action could never be obtained with any of the known methods
employed for this purpose, because owing to the bad conductibility of the material
employed, which was either saturated with cold or warm water, et cetera, or filled
with pieces of ice, or had cold water run through it (as, for instance, india-rubber
tubes), the application to the part of the body was quite close or tight.
"By means of my method a still greater evil is removed, because by the use of
it the carrying out of the instructions of the doctor is not made to depend upon
attendants who are often unreliable or tired.
"In order to give a sufficiently strong pressure to the passage of the water
through such long narrow metal pipes without having to place the vessel extremely
high, I have constructed a funnel shaped vessel which in addition to the round
funnel is provided with an opening for attaching to the india-rubber tube, and
which has at the broad upper end an oval pressed-in neck, the mouth of which
passes into a cross pipe which is closed at one end. The flat end of this pipe is
the same slope as the funnel, and its use is to enable this vessel to be laid down
anywhere with the mouth of the pipe upwards for it to be filled, or to lay the
filled funnel aside without emptying it.
"The vessel can be very quickly filled when lying down through the side
opening and the wide neck, because the air from the vessel can easily escape'
through them. A vessel of this kind which can be held up vertically in the hand
for use for a short time can also be hung or laid high up. A vessel of this kind
can also be easily filled by means of a siphon.
"As it is sometimes necessary to see the height of the liquid, vessels of this
form can be made of substantial glass. Vessels of this kind are specially
advantageous for the injection of medical liquids or for sprinkling.
"It is then desirable to insert a sieve or some known straining or filtering
arrangement.
"Such vessels can be made of metal, glass, porcelain, and other suitable materials.
As reservoirs for the first apparatus (that is to say, the pipes), various forms of
vessels can of course be used, consequently such as have an ice holder in them can
be employed."

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Phillips Thompson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th June 1881.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Firm of Wm. P. Thompson and Co.,
Patent Agents, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, 323,
High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, and Berridge Street, Leicester,
in the County of Leicester, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING
TO APPARATUS FOR HEATING OR COOLING PORTIONS OF THE HUMAN OR ANIMAL
BODY FOR MEDICAL OR SURGICAL PURPOSES, APPLICABLE PARTLY ALSO FOR
SPRINKLING." A communication from abroad by Joseph Leiter, of Vienna, in the
Dominions of Austria.
The following is a literal translation of the Specification, as communicated to me
by my Austrian correspondent, with orders to file.
"
From very early times the adduction and abduction of heat have been utilized
in the art of healing. So far as cold or warm water has been applied for this
purpose it has given rise to a particular branch of the medical science, namely,
hydrotherapeutic. Side by side therewith local adduction and abduction of heat
without moisture, which is everywhere practicable, has in course of time come into
great use as a very important curative.
The methods of local regulation of heat (by abduction or adduction), as hitherto
practised, have however various defects, and do not in any way correspond with
the exactness generally practised or sought in all branches of the medical science.
These methods are not purely local; as neither icebags, warm kataplasma, nor
'Priessnitz's' compress (a wet cloth put on diseased parts of the body) allow of
exactly localizing the effects of the regulation of heat or limiting the same, but on
the contrary extend them also to adjacent parts. Furthermore, the regulation of
heat by the methods hitherto in use is not even and constant, especially when long
continued action is required, as cold compresses soon become heated and warm ones
cooled. If in this manner the apparent evenness of the regulation of heat is
deceptive the application of a determined graduated temperature, especially for
long periods of action, is impossible. Besides, this method, if the proposed object is
to be attained even approximately, requires no inconsiderable labour in changing
the compresses, and only the greatest care will prevent the patient, as well as those
attending upon him, catching colds, leaving the greater or less reliability of the
attendants altogether out of account. Another defect of these methods is, that for
effective and enduring local abduction of heat ice has hitherto been used, which,
especially in country places, can rarely be obtained, especially in summer, and
under certain circumstances (in mild winters) is even in some towns inaccessible to
poor patients, not to mention the cases of wars and warm climates. Furthermore,
the outlay for icebags, kataplasma, and the like, especially in great hospitals, is
very considerable in the course of the year. All these disadvantages however can
be obviated by properly using continuously circulating water of appropriate
temperature for regulating heat.
Now I have devised apparatus for perfectly attaining by the well known method
of circulating water by soft india-rubber apparatus hitherto in use, according to
physical laws, the aforesaid object, namely, the abstraction or adduction of heat
from or to the diseased human body. The essential feature of construction of the
said apparatus is, that water of any requisite or desirable temperature is led
through long narrow metal tubes, flexible like wax, made of tinned or untinned
lead, of tin, or of alloy of these two metals, which tubes coiled into spirals present
metal surfaces of convenient size, which can easily be bent into shape to fit any
part of the body. Figs. 1 and 2 are diagrams of metal heat regulators of various
forms. They consist of flexible spirally coiled or rolled up tubes of metal, of from
three to six millimetres thickness, and of from one to two and a half millimetres bore.
Each end of such a tube is provided with joints for attaching india-rubber tubing

page_text: thereto. These metal tubes are loosely tied together so as to enable them to
preserve their shape. Fig. 3 differs from the former apparatus in that two spirals
laid side by side are formed from one tube. By this means the flexibility and
capability of these forms of being straightened or flattened are facilitated. The
free ends of the tube are furthermore soldered together, thus preventing the
breakage of the flexible tubes.
Fig. 4 represents a circular heat regulator in operation. The apparatus S, p, is
fixed by a ribbon b, the supply pipe Z, S, is immersed in a vessel placed at a higher
level, and the exhaust pipe A, S, is conducted into a vessel placed at a lower level, in
which the water flowing from the upper vessel through the apparatus is collected.
By the use of the metal, which is a good conductor of heat, and of the circulating
stream of water, I obtain (in consequence of the great capacity of water for
absorbing heat) the same effect by the use of water at ten, twelve, and fifteen
degrees centigrade as can be attained by means of any icebag. If water at ten degrees
centigrade is conducted through the apparatus the apparatus closely fitted to any
part of the body can hardly be borne for a few minutes; if ice water (water of three
to four degrees) is used the part becomes anaesthetic in the very shortest time.
To impart to the water to be conducted through such a heat regulator a
temperature above that of ordinary spring water, namely, ten to twelve degrees
centigrade, and to cause the same to act for hours, nay, days, at a predetermined
higher temperature, I have devised an apparatus by which the water, exhausted
from the bottle can be heated by means of a spirit or petroleum burner before it
enters the apparatus to the exact temperature required, up to, say, fifty degrees
centigrade or even more. In Fig. 5, in which a heat-regulator is shown placed
round the neck, the heating pan p, S, consisting of spiral coils, as illustrated in
Fig. 6, is inserted in the supply pipe Z, S; this device can be placed upon the
lamp L in the same manner as a lamp chimney. Upon the exhaust tube a
thermometer T is provided which indicates the temperature of the water when the
same is passing through. As will be seen in Fig. 5 the water receptacle and the
lamp are on the same level so as to allow the water to flow slowly through the
spirals of the pan, so as to enable even a moderate sized burner to constantly heat
the water to the sufficient degree. To further prevent a rapid fall of the water
the collecting vessel into which the exhaust tube A, S, opens is placed higher than
the floor. Variation of the height at which the individual is placed, to whom such
an apparatus is applied, always causes a rise or fall in the temperature of the water
flowing through the apparatus, as this causes the column of water to be slowed,
and consequently to be heated more or else to flow off quicker. For repeated use
of the water, already raised in temperature, the overflow vessel has again to be
placed upon the floor and the flame to be made very small, as with the same sized
Hame the temperature of the water, which again flows through the heating pan,
would be sensibly raised; the same applies if water previously heated by any other
means is used. The lamp I use for the purpose is, as illustrated in Fig. 5, analogous
in construction to the ordinary petroleum lamp, and has a circular burner with gas-
aspirator. A sighthole f provided in the heating pan serves for inspection of the
flame to be regulated. The circulation of water through the heat-regulator can be
started before the application to the limb or after the same, and either by
exhausting the air in the tubes by suction with the mouth at the end of the
exhaust tube, when the one end is placed into a vessel filled with water, or I may
use for this purpose, and especially with large sized apparatus made of long thin
tubes, a funnel shaped vessel. The said vessel consists of an elongated funnel (as
shown in Fig. 7), which is provided at its lower end with an aperture outwardly
strengthened by a ring. To this aperture the india-rubber tube can be attached by
inserting a perforated stopper of hardened india-rubber in the same manner as
would be the case with a ground glass stopper, and which by reason of the elasticity
of the hardened india-rubber will hold as fast and securely as if screwed in. At
its upper widened end it terminates in a bent neck having an aperture of about
three centimetres diameter, and serves for the introduction of the liquid. For

page_text: filling the funnel and for setting it up in a horizontal position when filled it is
provided at its lower side with a base rigidly attached, which will also prevent the
funnel rolling sideways. It may be filled, as shown in Fig. 9, by a syphon like
action, and for this purpose the tube-end with the pipe removed is dipped into a
vessel filled with the liquid; the air is then exhausted with one's mouth or
otherwise from the neck end and the liquid drawn into the funnel, or the funnel
may be filled like an ordinary bottle. The funnel can, because of its oblique
position, never become entirely full; as soon however as it is set up vertically the
empty space is filled by the liquid, which may be filled in up to the neck. At the
foot end a wire or other sling is provided (as shown in Fig. 8) to enable the same
to be hung up on a hook. Such funnel shaped vessels may very advantageously
be used for injecting medicated liquids and for sprinkling; they may be made of
metal, glass, porcelain, or other suitable material. If heat is to be abstracted by
water of a certain temperature, say, water of ten to fifteen degrees centigrade, which
temperature is about that of the air in a sick room or an inhabited apartment, the
same water can be used for a long time, as the same is hardly heated to any
perceptible extent by the animal heat when passing through an applied apparatus,
especially if the supply vessel is placed at a suitable height; only where the
temperature of the air is nearly that of the body will a more frequent changing of
the water be required.
By a more rapid flow of the water through the regulator the abstraction of heat
from a portion of the body can be increased, as beating of the apparatus by the
body can then take place to a very limited extent only, whereas with a restricted
flow the heating of the apparatus is increased. This process is analagous to that
herein before described with referance to the heating fan, in which also, by placing
the water vessels higher or lower, the temperature of the water can be lowered or
raised without alteration of the size of the flame.
In this description of the construction and manipulation of my apparatus, I
believe it incumbent upon me to remark that when water of ten degrees centi-
grade is used, the part of the body to which the regulator is applied is to be
covered with linen or woollen cloth, as in most cases the constant abstraction of
heat by water of this temperature is unbearable, and these materials being bad
conductors diminish the effect. The samne procedure may be observed when heat is
adduced, especially for elevated temperatures, and in cases where moisture and
warmth are desired, in which latter case water is applied to the fabric placed
underneath. Well, spring, or river water of only fifteen to twenty degrees centi-
grade would, when the metal apparatus is placed directly upon the body, be
sufficient for most cases of disease. With water cooled to two to three degrees
centigrade anæstheticism can, as already mentioned, be produced in the shortest
time. This might be of use in other cases also for the treatment of diseases for
which the apparatus hitherto employed involves the use of ice water. Ice water,
according to the opinion of several eminent physicians, can thus be dispensed with.
Not only the obviating of the heavy expense of procuring ice, but the frequent
impossibility of procuring it make my method more advantageous than apparatus
of other constructions.
Besides this other advantages have to be considered, namely, that my apparatus
can be applied to any part of the body, under or over or even in a gypsum
dressing, and that it remains operative when thus fixed in all movements.
Furthermore, this apparatus consists of a durable material, and is every-where
easily constructed and procured at a small cost. The material in itself is besides
of some value, and can be utilized even after destruction of the apparatus. Finally,
when this apparatus is used the expense for attendants, which are indispensable
when ice bags, or wet, warm, and cold compresses are used, is dispensed with, as
the supplying of fresh quantity of water required only at intervals of several hours
with an almost automatic apparatus like mine, can be easily effected by any one.
An additional advantage is that the physician has no longer to depend upon the
good will or physical power of a nurse for a correct execution of his prescriptions,

page_text: especially for night service. To order the use of such apparatus is then a matter
for the physician, and prevents quacking by the use of all sorts of compresses.
By the use of my apparatus the even and constant abstraction or adduction of
heat, or an alternation of the two, similar to that in a vapour or Turkish bath,
can be effected in two or three minutes. Further, it is quite local upon the body,
a circumstance which may eventually also prove to be of therapeutical value.
Burning and scalding cannot with ordinary care occur by the use of this apparatus,
where heat is to be adduced, if the thermometer be attended to, and the pre-
caution above indicated are observed. It is further possible to suspend the
apparatus above the respective part of the body, as well where heat is to be
abstracted as where it is to be adduced, as the effect can be attained even at some
distance, though it is then somewhat enfeebled, especially if a cloth be laid above
the apparatus and outside, which cloth also covers the limb. In this manner very
tender places, say, when bighly inflamed, burnt, et cetera, can be submitted to
treatment by heat.
Such heat regulators of given size may, by bending away or unrolling of the
metal tubes, be rendered effective for a small part of the body only; it is also
possible to operate several specimens of the apparatus placed upon the same body,
say, on head and chest, from one water-vessel if the tube ends are connected by
india rubber tubes. In Fig. 10 is illustrated such a combination of several cooling
or heating apparatus which are fed from one water vessel. According to the
practical experience made with this heat regulator, I have constructed the
apparatus shown in Fig. 11 for preserving preparations whilst they are being
prepared, or of unfinished preparations, by which apparatus, by abstraction of
heat, prevents the spoiling of the preparation for a long time, especially in the
hot season, and where waterworks are available. This preserving apparatus
consists of a metal platter and a metal bell, both furnished with spirally coiled
water conducting tubes, one tube being underneath the platter, the other in the
bell, the latter being in the Drawing shown outside only for the sake of greater
clearness. The two tubes are for facilitating the lifting off and putting aside
the bell during the operation of preparing, connected by india rubber tubing.
Whilst the preparation on the platter is operated upon it is cooled by the water
conduit below the latter. If the bell is placed hermetically over the same the
cooling takes place in the enclosed space also by means of the second water conduit
in the bell,"
Having now described the Invention exactly as communicated to me in German
by my foreign correspondent, I wish it to be understood that what is believed to
be new and sought to be claimed under the hereinbefere in part recited Letters
Patent is,
First. The manufacture and application of apparatus, such as berein described,
composed of flexible metal tubes of tinned or untinned lead, tin, an alloy of both
metals, or other similar alloy capable of being bent without breaking, with round,
oval, or quadrangular, or any other convenient section, for use in abstracting beat
from or adducing it to the bodies of live men or animals.
Second. The general arrangement and combination of apparatus for heating
or cooling parts of the animal frame, substantially as herein described and
shown.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Phillips Thompson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
ad sight hundred and eighty one
W. P. THOMPSON. (L.S.)