Can’t Breathe? Try Some Victorian Relief

Inhalers today aren’t significantly different from those 180 years ago

By Ralph Finch

Perhaps the most depressing quote of the year is “I can’t breathe.” However, breathing has been a challenge since man first had nostrils, and medicine to aid breathing has been a big product for centuries. In fact, for the last two hundred years, Londoners have also lamented the same thing. And when it comes to patent medicine, no one is bigger than the Brits, either as makers, users or as collectors.

Recently, John Ault of Gravesend, England, offered a nice grouping. He added, “The Victorians and Edwardians did like to decorate everything to the max, even inhalers.” But John Ault admitted, “I’m afraid I don’t know a great deal about inhalers. All these came along by chance, an impulse buy because of their attractive prints and superb condition from the Keith Walker pharmacy collection that Alan Blakeman sold through a British Bottle Review auction.”

And these old items have a direct link to today’s breathing, virus aside. Remember the lovely song about “*A Foggy Day in London Town”? Air in coal-burning London has for years been deadly.

TOP: These cigarettes claiming to cure asthma "may be safely smoked by ladies and children." BOTTOM: This Dr. Bulling Patent Thermo-Variator steam asthma inhaler dated 1904 was on eBay for $564.

From Wikipedia (edited): “Fogs were relatively common in London in the 1700s, but by the early 1800s these had become deadly, as the smoke and fumes from industrialization and urban growth were trapped by calm, still air. Animals suffered, too. In 1873 the annual cattle show at Smithfield market was ruined by a December fog that left the “fat cattle panting and coughing,” and many of the animals collapsed and died.”

There was the great London smog of 1952. For five days a thick layer of air pollution, mostly caused by coal burning in homes and factories, covered the city and caused the deaths of thousands of residents. (Twenty years ago I was in a damp pub in chilly London and it was being heated with charcoal burning in an open fireplace.)

On the internet, Theresa Cannizzaro, a respiratory therapist, wrote, “The first ‘powered’ nebulizer was invented in France in 1858 by Sales-Girons. He made a device that would atomize medication in liquid form. It was similar to a bicycle pump where you would lift up and push down on a long pump handle which would push the medication through the atomizer and near the person’s mouth where they would breathe it in.”

“In the early 1900s many asthma patients would use hand-held atomizers. In 1910, epinephrine became a first-line treatment for asthma flare-ups when it became available in a solution that could be nebulized with fewer side effects than injecting it directly into a vein.”

“The term ‘aerosol’ was first coined in 1920. Also in the early 1900s, asthma cigarettes were widely used by many asthma sufferers as a treatment! These cigarettes contained stramonium as well as various other herbal remedies such as tea leaves, belladonna and eucalyptus (which later was realized to be a pretty big asthma trigger for many). The directions for inhaling the asthma cigarettes were very similar to both the metered dose

The attractive Cooper Milton Inhaler. The Westminister Inhaler is a beautiful example of the transfer work and early advertising on some of these products.

An assortment of inhalers, in a photo sent by England’s John Ault. In general, most inhalers run $25 to $75. I like the large third one from the left. Is this the brand the Road Runner prefers? From left are the Milton Inhaler; the Alexandra Inhaler; Maw’s Inhaler (one on eBay last June was priced at $60 plus shipping, they also are reproduced); the Hockin’s Acme Inhaler (was on eBay priced at $150); and the Hockin’s Bronchial Inhaler.

CLOCKWISE (from top left): On eBay I found this “Original tin inhaler with burner funnel and glass bottle, makers brass plaque ‘Dr. Siegle’s Patent Krohne & Sesemann, London’, with reprinted instructions, in original wooden box with label dated 1864.” It was priced at $3,129 plus $36 for shipping to the States. This must have been a popular item, since three others were available on the internet, one for $492, another for £465, and a third for $583.; Hockin's Acme Inhaler; Ad for the Adams Inhaler from 1892; and an advertisement for Godfrey's Chloride of Ammonium Inhaler.

John Ault with a rare poison.

inhalers and dry powder inhalers like we have today. Breathe all the way out and then take a deep breath and inhale as much of the smoke in as possible and then hold your breath for several seconds before exhaling.”

Of the Milton inhaler, Laurence Cooper, who runs London’s “Antique Dispensary,” noted, “During the late Victorian/ early Edwardian period highly decorative pottery jar inhalers were produced for ailments such as bronchitis and other chest complains. Many different types were made for different regions of the U.K., generally connected to pharmacies who marketed them in exotic names such as The Perfect, The Oxford, The Bournemouth and Alexandra. The most highly prized are jars with exotic birds and butterflies and one known as the Milton is transfer printed with two birds.”

FYI 1: In the 1800s, hot steaming water vapor and any sometimes additional medicine the doctor prescribed was placed in these inhalers and the patient would breathe in these ‘therapeutic’ vapors, not just for lung disease but for other ailments like mercury vapor for syphilis. Ouch.

*FYI 2: “A Foggy Day” was composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, introduced by Fred Astaire in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress. It was in reference to the pollution-induced pea soup fogs that were common in London during that period, with worst to come.

More history of antique inhalers and nebulizers can be found at https:// asthma.net/living/history-asthma-part3-nebulizers-inhalers/

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