The Tallerman-Sheffield patent localized hot-air bath : being a new invention for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, rheumatic arthritis, stiff and painful joints, sprains, etc., etc., by the local application of super-heated dry air : with notes of cases treated at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, North-West London Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, The Royal Portsmouth Hospital, and elsewhere.

Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Tallerman-Sheffield patent localized hot-air bath : being a new invention for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, rheumatic arthritis, stiff and painful joints, sprains, etc., etc., by the local application of super-heated dry air : with notes of cases treated at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, North-West London Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital, The Royal Portsmouth Hospital, and elsewhere. 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.

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    part treated. In rheumatic affections, for instance, not only the opposite limb, but other parts of the body, are often relieved at the same time. In acute inflammatory conditions, especially of the joints, the anodyne effect is striking. Patients suffering the severest pain become quite easy after half an hour’s exposure, and not infrequently sink into a comfortable sleep. (2) Reduction of Inflammation. — The absorption of inflammatory products is promoted in a marked degree, and a healthy condition restored with surprising rapidity. Cases of sprain and other injury, which might be expected to run a long and tedious course, are cut short. (3) Increased Mobility in Stiff and Painful Joints.— The range of motion is not affected, of course, in cases of bony anchylosis, but the case of S. G, treated at the Royal Portsmouth Hospital under Mr. Ward Cousins, demon- strated that adhesions yield with very little pain after treatment in the hot-air apparatus. In severer cases, where the adhesions are of so firm a character that there would be some hesitation about breaking them down under an ansesthetic, owing to the probability of recurring stiffening, it is of a special value to the surgeon. To use Mr. Willett’s words, 1 Movements that excited pain before can be performed after the limb is placed in the batn without pain. Again, in cases of breaking down of adhesions under gas, the patient is in great pain after- wards , but let the limb be placed in the heated cylinder, and the pam is greatly lessened, as also is the secondary stiffness due to extravasation and inflammation round the torn tissues.’ (4) Elimination of Morbid Products.—There is reason to believe that the profuse and prolonged perspiration, combined with the great increase of circulation in the sub- cutaneous tissues, which are promoted by the dry-air bath, effect the removal of morbid products by exudation in gouty and iheumatic cases much more completely than any other process. In short, all the effects of heat are obtained in a heightened degree.