APPARATUS FOR APPLYING HEAT, COLD, MOISTURE, FUMES, VAPORS, AND OTHER AGENTS IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY
Year: 1858

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Rose at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th April
1858. A communication.
I, JOHN ROSE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Gentle-
man, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "APPARATUS FOR
APPLYING HEAT, COLD, MOISTURE, FUMES, VAPORS, AND OTHER AGENTS IN MEDICINE
AND SURGERY," (being a communication to me from abroad,) to be as follows,
that is to say :-
This Invention relates to apparatus consisting of a heater or cooler for
heating or cooling air or other aeriform body, or a generator for generating
steam or other vapor or fumes, a bellows or other forcing or suction apparatus
and pipes connecting the heater, cooler, or generator with a proper mouth-
piece or mask, to be directed or applied to any part of the body for the
purpose of bringing hot or cold air, vapor, or fumes, or any aeriform mixture
into contact with the body to act as a remedial agent. In one modification of
the apparatus a covered vessel for generating steam, vapor, or fumes is placed
over a lamp, and a bellows is arranged to supply a uniform stream of air to
this vessel, the air and vapors passing thence through a flexible tube to a
mouthpiece or mask contrived so as to be conveniently applied to the part
to be operated upon. The edges of this mask are fitted with caoutchouc

page_text: tubing, or other sufficiently flexible material, to form a cushion easily accom-
modating itself to the part to which the mask is applied. The mask is
contrived so that the aeriform agent may be spread equally over the surface
operated upon, and an exit passage is provided to cause the aeriform agent to
pass through in a continuous current and to prevent condensation within the
mask. The mask may be shaped in various ways, according to the particular
application for which it is designed; thus, for application to the teeth or gums,
the tube conveying the aeriform agent may be simply fitted with a mouth-
piece, shaped so as to bring the agent directly in contact with the part to be
operated upon, or a duplex tube may be used, the agent entering the mouth-
piece or mask by one passage and leaving it again by another.
Another form of mask is made like a band to encircle the neck of the
patient; its frame consists by preference of wire gauze, to the upper and
lower edges of which caoutchouc tubing or some flexible and elastic material
is fitted as a cushioning, to enable the mask to accomodate itself easily to
the patient's neck; to one end of the wire gauze band is attached a box formed
with two passages, one in communication with the pipe conveying the aeriform
agent to the mask and the other arranged to receive the same, for the purpose
of conveying it away after its passage round the neck. In all cases the
aeriform agent may be applied directly to the part to be operated upon, or it
may be made to act through the intervention of flannel or other material;
or instead of the mask there may be substituted a mouthpiece formed so that
the size of its orifice may be adjusted to throw a jet of greater or less force or
size on the part to be operated upon.
Instead of the bellows a fan, blower, pump, or any suitable forcing or
suction apparatus may be used for forcing air or other aeriform agent, as
herein-before described; and such forcing or suction apparatus may be applied
either to force air or other aeriform agent into the generator, or to draw it thence
and force it onwards to the point of application; or again, it may be arranged
to drawn the aeriform agent over and away from the part to be operated
upon.