IMPROVEMENTS IN, THE MEANS OF OR APPLIANCES FOR TREATING BODILY INJURIES, AFFECTIONS, AND DISORDERS WHEN ATMOSPHERIC AIR IS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE PART AFFECTED
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Michael Henry, of .84, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN, THE
MEANS OF OR APPLIANCES FOR TREATING BODILY INJURIES, AFFECTIONS, AND
DISORDERS WHEN ATMOSPHERIC AIR IS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE PART
AFFECTED." A communication from abroad by Doctor Jules Guérin, of
33, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, Member of the French
Inoxial Academy of Medicine
!
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Michael Henry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
November 1864.
...I, MICHAEL HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MEANS OF OR APPLIANCES FOR TREATING BODILY INJURIES, AFFECTIONS, AND
DISORDERS WHEN ATMOSPHERIC AIR IS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE PART AFFECTED,"
communicated to me from abroad by Doctor Jules Guérin, of 33, Boulevart
Saint Martin, Paris, France, Member of the French Imperial Academy of
Medicine, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to means or appliances suitable for treating wounds,
injuries, affections, or disorders when atmospheric air is to be excluded from
the part affected. These means or appliances are as follows:-A casing com-
posed of vulcanized caoutchouc or of other like flexible material, is 'made to

page_text: fit or nearly to fit the limb or portion of the body in which the affected part
or part to be treated is situated, and it is caused to communicate with a
spherical or otherwise shaped portable pneumatic receiver, vacuum or
exhausting chamber, or vessel exhausted of air. The vessel or receiver is
furnished with a cock or valve, and is capable of being connected, when
required, with an air pump or contrivance for exhausting air, and it is pro-
vided with a vacuum gauge. The flexible casing is open at one or both ends,
so that the limb or portion of the body to be encased may be readily intro-
duced therein; but the open end or ends is resilient or springy,.so that it (or
they) can be extended to admit the limb or part of the person, but will
immediately close tightly round it (or it may be tightened by other, means).
The casing preferably communicates with the receiver or vacuum vessel by an
incompressible tube. The portable vessels or receivers which are intended to
be carried on the person, as well as the casing, are so connected therewith
that they may be readily removed and exhausted afresh, or replaced by fresh
ones, or they may be in a piece with the casing, and may even take the form
of the part to which they are applied. When the casing is applied to the
person, and a portable vessel exhausted of air connected with it, and the tap
or valve opened, the air will be exhausted from the casing or very much
rarefied, and the casing under the external atmospheric pressure will draw and
fit closely round the limb or part of the body. When the gauge indicates
pressure or density of air in the vessel or receiver so that it ceases to. acţ
efficiently it can be exhausted again, or a fresh exhausted receiver can be
applied to the casing. Of course the portable appliances are made of a
substance impervious to air.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Michael Henry in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th May 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Michael Henry, Her special licence that I, the said

page_text: Michael Henry, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Michael Henry, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF OR APPLIANCES FOR TREATING BODILY INJURIES,
AFFECTIONS, AND DISORDERS WHEN ATMOSPHERIC AIR IS TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THE
PART AFFECTED," communicated to me from abroad by Doctor Jules Guérin,
of 33, Boulevart Saint Martin,. Paris, France, Member of the French
Imperial Academy of Medicine, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Michael Henry, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Michael Henry, do hereby declaro
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo-
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to means or appliances suitable for treating wounds,
injuries, affections, or disorders when atmospheric air is to be excluded from
the part affected. These means or appliances are as follows:-A casing
composed of vulcanized caoutchouc or of other like flexible material, is made
to fit or nearly to fit the limb or portion of the body in which the affected
part to be treated is situated, and this casing is caused to communicate with
a spherical or otherwise shaped portable pneumatic receiver, vacuum chamber,
or vessel exhausted of air, furnished with a cock or valve, and capable of
being connected, when required, with an air pump, a stationary exhausted
receiver, or other contrivance for exhausting air; it is also provided with a
vacuum gauge. The flexible casing is open at one or both ends in order that
the limb or portion of the body to be encased may be introduced therein. The
open end or ends are resilient or springy, so that they may be extended
sufficiently to admit the limb or part of the person to be encased, and imme-
diately after it has been admitted they will close tightly round it. The
openings may, however, be tightened by other means. The casing commu-
nicates with the receiver or vacuum vessel by an incompressible tube. The
portable vessels or receivers are intended to be carried on the person, as well

page_text: as the casing, and are so connected therewith that they may be readily.
removed to be exhausted or replaced by fresh ones, or they may be in a piece
with the casing, and take the form of the part to which they are applied: When'
the casing is applied to the person, and a portable vessel exhausted of air is
connected with it, and its tap or valve opened, the air will be exhausted from
the casing or very much rarefied therein, and the casing will yield to the
external atmospheric pressure, and fit closely round the limb or part of the
body. When the gauge indicates that there is too great a quantity or
density of air in the pneumatic vessel to allow it to act efficiently it is to be
exhausted again, or a fresh exhausted receiver applied. The portable appli-
ances are made of a substance impervious to air. By the means described
gaseous or other humours or exhalations given-off from the body will not be
allowed to stagnate, but will be drawn off without undue suction being exerted
on the skin, and the wound will suppuratė rapidly.
In order more thoroughly to explain the Invention, I will describe it as
applied to a wounded leg after the wound has been dressed by any ordinary
method, and, if needful, protected by a plate up to the edges. The leg is
inserted in a vulcanized india-rubber casing shaped roughly like a boot, just
large enough to receive the limb. without painfully pressing upon it, and
closed at bottom, but open at the top, the opening being of less diameter than
the part of the leg to be encircled, but being elastic it is stretched to admit
the limb, and will immediately close tightly round it. A non-elastic india-
rubber tube is fixed to the casing, the free end of this tube is fitted to the
cock of an air vessel previously exhausted of air, and the cock is opened,
whereupon the air will be immediately exhausted from the casing, and its
elastic sides will yield to the atmospheric pressure and close tightly round the
limb, and remain so until it is necessary to exhaust the air vessel afresh 'by:
means of the stationary exhausted receiver of an air pump or otherwise, or to
fit on a freshly exhausted portable receiver.
Sometimes a pervious casing or padding is interposed between the air-tight
of impervious casings and the skin to assist in drawing off the exhalations and
humours, and to prevent the skin from being blistered by rucks or creases in
the air-tight casing. The thickness or number of layers of interposed padding
may be varied to vary the quantity of exhalations drawn off.
.
For puerperal diseases the impervious casing may be of the shape of
drawers fitting closely round the region of the pelvis, and having round the
abdomen an air cushion or pneumatic pad to fill up the depressions of the
vertebral groove, and an elastic compressible girdle may be combined with it.
A suction pipe is passed through the side of these drawers in front of the

page_text: vagino uterine cavity, having at one end a sponge, and at one part a hollow
glass ball for receiving the matters drawn off. A cock opens and closes
communication between this ball and the vagino uterine cavity. To regulate
the suction produced by the casing a hollow ball is sometimes used, divided
by a partition into two compartments, one of which communicates with the
casing, while the other acts as a reservoir and regulates the degree of exhaust
in the former compartment.
The portable receivers may sometimes consist of cases with flexible sides,
which collapse when the case is exhausted, and are expanded by a spring,
which of itself is not of sufficient strength to expand the case, but will do so
when air or gas enters it, and assists the action of the spring. The extent of
expansion of the case indicates the state of the vacuum within the casing.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim, the flexible or
elastic impervious casing fitting as described, on the limb or other part to be
treated and combined with a pneumatic receiver, or vessel, or chamber
which can be exhausted as required, arranged, and acting substantially as set
forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Henry, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
S. E. A. NEWSOME.
M. HENRY. (L.S.)