A towel might be placed over the patient's head to enclose the inhaler and concentrate the treatment. Loosening phlegm: Steam can help to loosen phlegm in the airways, which can make it easier to cough up. Lung disease was a key issue in nineteenth-century discourse and here the smallest objects and seemingly simple technologies (pills, medicated steam, inhalation devices) enable powerful and provocative accounts of both the private and socio-historical dimensions of medicine. Both Dewar’s version of the Sales-Girons inhaler and Siegle’s inhaler were initially only available for purchase from the instrument makers themselves (in Kirkcaldy and London respectively).

It works by filling the inhaler with an infusion and boiling liquid then inhaling the steam deep into the lungs. One reason may have been the link in the public mind between inhalation therapy and quackery following a trial involving Dr Hunter (who claimed to have healed consumption through the inhalation of oxygen) and the Pall Mall Gazette in 1865–66 ( Parry, 2000, pp 108–109). Nelson’s Improved Inhaler” – designed to produce steam which when inhaled helped with chest infections and throat dehydration. As such the seemingly inconspicuous Dr Nelson’s Inhaler enables us to tell a far-reaching story of pulmonary and respiratory disease and their treatment in the nineteenth century. Interestingly, technologies are still employed today for respiratory muscle training in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis using inspriatory/expiratory resistance devices ( Volska et al, 2003; Battaglia et al, 2009; van Winden et al, 1998).

It is very quirky; use it as a vase or we can see it in the bathroom or kitchen; it really does make a great statement piece. Nelson’s inhalers were used well into the 20th Century and even modern steam inhalation devices differ only slightly. In 1849 Auphon invented his ‘atomizer’ in Euzet-le-Bains, the point of origin of all further nebulising devices in the nineteenth century.

A wide range of designs were available and the Nelson type, first invented between 1861 and 1865, was one of the most popular and enduring. While steam inhalers were replaced in conventional respiratory medicine by modern inhaler devices, Dr Nelson’s Inhaler is notable for how it helped to establish inhalation as a popular, inexpensive and trusted form of medical therapy for respiratory ailments in the 1860s. As part of a ‘strictly introductory’ ( Anon, 1850c, p 41) series of clinical lectures serialised in the PMSJ between 1851 and 1853 (also published in book form in 1850), David Nelson also gave three lectures on ‘The morbid condition of the lungs and respiratory tubes’ (Nelson, 1851, 1853a and 1853b).As Thomas Andrew was the only Nelson in the RMCS at this time, this could at least indicate his intellectual ownership. This type of inhaler proved so efficient that its design has changed little since Dr Nelson’s Victorian model. Moreover, it was sanctioned in more formal terms as a treatment method in academic publications such as case histories, medical textbooks, and more widely in domestic handbooks, while the incorporation of steam inhalations in the British Pharmacopoeia in 1867 placed the Dr Nelson’s Inhaler at a remove from these irregular forms of treatment. In Stuttgart Emil Siegle developed a widely respected steam spray inhaler which used heat to generate the steam necessary for the Bernoulli principle, thereby rendering the hand-pump redundant (Siegle, 1864).

It is known that Thomas Andrew qualified in Edinburgh with a dissertation on ‘Phthisis pulmonaris’ in 1834 (and thus had specialised in a related topic; see Edinburgh Journal, 1834, p 490). A comparison to the other inhalation devices mentioned in this article shows just how unusual Dr Nelson’s reticence was in this regard; Waldenburg ( 1862), Siegle ( 1864), Dewar (1868), Adams ( 1878), and indeed other physicians like Mackenzie, with his ‘Eclectic Inhaler’ (1880) all advertised their inventions with extensive user manuals and booklets, even if these were aimed either at professional colleagues or were distributed with the devices after they had been purchased. That said, it’s otherwise in a good state, has a good maker’s mark and is a definite conversation piece! This one lacks its stopper and glass tube but it retains great character and is an interesting and distinctive item nonetheless – and probably not for actual use!Using the Medical Register, which was first published in 1859 and included the names, addresses, and qualifications of all licensed medical practitioners in the UK, 11 individuals with the surname ‘Nelson’ who were qualified prior to 1860 can be identified, of which two – David Hume Nelson of Birmingham (ca. It predated the availability of the Sales-Girons-type and Siegle-type nebulizers in Britain by some five years, and even after these other devices were available, the Nelson’s Inhaler required a fraction of the maintenance necessary for the small technical parts in the nebulizers. The cork stopper is inserted in the wide opening at the top of the inhaler, whilst the hollow glass tube acts as mouthpiece used to inhale the steam.