Observations on the properties of the air-pump vapour-bath, pointing out their efficacy in the cure of gout, rheumatism, palsy, &c. : With cursory remarks on factitious airs, and on the improved state of medical electricity, in all its branches, particularly in that of galvanism, and their efficacy in various diseases / by M. La Beaume.

  • La Beaume, Michael.
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the properties of the air-pump vapour-bath, pointing out their efficacy in the cure of gout, rheumatism, palsy, &c. : With cursory remarks on factitious airs, and on the improved state of medical electricity, in all its branches, particularly in that of galvanism, and their efficacy in various diseases / by M. La Beaume. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    72/84 (page 72)
    7*^ physiological work to be the most important since the days of Haller; Dr. W. Philip’s work, much more deserves this encomium, it places him unquestionably on a footing with all living ex- perimental physiologists, and while it conveys us considerable distance on the road of science, also conveys us to the possession of no small practical benefit^ and directs to the possession of much more.^^ See the annals of Medicine and Surgery, vol. 2, page 271. The application of Dr. Philip's discoveries is very striking, by depriving the lungs and stomach of a portion of their nervous influence as in the experiment made on Rabbits by the division of the eight pair of nerves, dysnoa and dyspepsia were occasioned; removed by substituting galvanism for the loss of nervous power. From these facts Dr. P. thought of em- ploying galvanism in humoral asthma, connect- ed with dyspepsia.—“ I have employed galvan- ism in many cases of habitual asthma, and almost uniformly with relief. It is remarkable that in several who had laboured under asthmatic breath- ing from ten to twenty years it gave relief quite as readily as in more recent cases, which proves the habitual difficulty of breathing even in the most protracted cases is not to he ascribed to any perma- nent change having taken place in the lungs» Of the above cases of asthma many occured in the town where I reside, where the patients had been obliged to abandon their employments in consequence of it, and some of them, from its long