On the action, use, and value of oxygen in the treatment of various diseases otherwise incurable or very intractable / by S.B. Birch.

  • Birch, S. B. (Scholes Butler)
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the action, use, and value of oxygen in the treatment of various diseases otherwise incurable or very intractable / by S.B. Birch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    allied to that which obtains in the manufacture of oxygenated water-, viz., the substitution of pure oxygen for the greater part of the air ordinarily present in the bread. One point of difficulty appeared to me at first to present an insupera- ble barrier to the general employment of this bread, viz., the rapidity with which it became mouldy even in the tightly-closed tins. This difficulty has been overcome. I find that good samples of the bread now keep sweet, and the occlusion of the oxygen remains perfect, for fully a fortnight or three weeks. A surprisingly small bit of this oxygenated bread proves its special value in suitable cases. Moreover, its relative effect on the appetite is sin- gular. Thus, on the one hand (as might be ex- pected) it stimulates the appetite where absent or capricious; while, on the other hand, it tends to produce such a feeling of epigastric fulness, when sufficient food has been swallowed, as to effectually suspend (if not satiate) some morbidly-craving appetites. These facts, as far as they have already been observed, appear full of significance as regards influence upon assimilation and nutrition. Even now I venture to believe that oxygenated bread, in some cases, will be found advantageously to super- cede artificial pepsine, pancreatine, and even qui- nine, iron, and the mineral acids. Particularly favorable subjects, upon whom to try it, present themselves in delicate children with continually-