This section is from the book "Materia Medica And Therapeutics Inorganic Substances", by Charles D. F. Phillips. Also available from Amazon: Materia medica and therapeutics.
I have used oxygen in several of these cases with good results. During inhalation relief to breathing was experienced, which lasted for some time afterward; compressed air has also been employed for these disorders. Biedert reports two cases of pleuritic adhesion in which vital capacity was much increased by it, and Kelemen one of empyema in which the effusion disappeared as diuresis set in (Medical Record, August, 1879).
 
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