MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 339 



Apparatus for withdrawing Atmospheric Phessuhe. — Sir James 

 Murray, of Dublin, lias invented an apparatus for the purpose of withdraw- 

 ing atmospheric pressure, partially or wholly, from the surface of the body. 

 The first of his machines was for the whole body, and resembled, in form, a 

 slipper bath, with the addition of a separate part to cover the upper portion 

 of the body, the head only being free. The upper portion was luted to the 

 lower by means of a composition (used in making printer's rollers for inking 

 the types), and fixed in a groove ; and, if necessary, the patient's face and 

 head "could be contained in a glass case, luted to the machine in the same 

 manner, and respiration carried on by a tube. The air from the machine was 

 removed by an exhausting syringe, screwed on towards the bottom part of 

 this apparatus. He had tried this machine in the collapsed cases of cholera, 

 and exhausted the air from the body, taking off one ton of atmospheric pres- 

 sure. The consequence was, that the vessels became full and turgid, and 

 the body, previously shrunk, was rounded and red. He had tried it repeat- 

 edly, and the same results followed. The process might be reversed, and 

 pressure of air made on the body, even to the amount of 100 tons without 

 damage ; but beyond this it would not be safe. He had tried it repeatedly 

 in asthma. The principle was applicable locally, and parts of the body could 

 be submitted to the action of the machine modified so as to be suitable to 

 them. He exhibited a contrivance of a long tin tube, made air-tight, and 

 with a piece of wet bladder round one end, which was open, and at the other 

 end, which was closed up, a small exhausting air-pump was placed. A pa- 

 tient with a paralytic wrist, put his arm into this ; the wet bladder was tied 

 round his arm at the top, to make it air-tight, and the atmosphere was then 

 pumped out of the tube. The atmospheric pressure being taken off, the 

 limb became turgid, the circulation was increased, and the part affected was 

 soon cured. There was another adajjtation of the same contrivance to the 

 limbs, to draw off the effect of congestion of the brain ; and one to stop hae- 

 morrhage in an injured hand, limb, or other extremity. An exhausting 

 pump was lixed to the end of a bladder, the Umb was put into the bladder, 

 and the neck then tied round to make it air-tight. The air was then com- 

 pletely exhausted by means of the pump, which compressed the bladder so 

 close to the skin as effectually to stop even the pores of the skin. The same 

 contrivance of a bladder and exhausting pump was also applied for the cure 

 of ulcerated logs, by preventing evaporation of the ulcers by exhausting the 

 air and making the collapsed bladder adhere tightly all round. For irre- 

 gular surfaces he thought the instruments of particular value, since no dry- 

 cupping could be used there. If this plan had been known when those 

 melancholy deaths from dissection cuts took place in Dublin, and dry -cupping 

 could not be had recourse to, it would have been fortunate. The machine 

 would be particularly advantageous in withdrawing blood from particular 

 parts to others more remote. Thus, in cases of congestion of the blood in 

 the head, when bleeding had been carried to such an extent that it would 

 not be safe to carry it further, owing to the great general loss in the circula- 

 tion, blood might be made to accumulate in other parts, as in the legs. The 

 case of a well-known brewer in Dublin was treated on this principle, and he 

 recovered. Sir James has enumerated the kinds of cases where the appa- 

 ratus might be used ; asthma, defective external circulation, aneurism, tu- 

 mora, and paralysis. 



VOL, vn., NO. XXII. '^^ 



