Oxygenium

Oxygen

Oxygen. Oxygéne, Fr.; Säuerstoff, Ger. (Not official.)

Preparation

The most convenient mode of preparing oxygen for medical purposes is to heat in a gun-barrel-shaped brass or iron retort a mixture composed of five parts of chlorate of potassium and one part of binoxide of manganese. When heated to dull red, the chlorate yields up its oxygen, being reduced to chloride. The gas may be most conveniently collected over water, which dissolves but little of the oxygen, but takes up all the chlorine that may be accidentally present.

It is a permanent, elastic gas, inodorous, without taste, incombustible, but uniting with bodies in a state of combustion. It is very slightly soluble in water at the ordinary temperature and pressure.

Dose

The quantity of oxygen which may be inhaled, in the ordinary medicinal applications of this gas, ranges from one to five gallons. The simplest apparatus will suffice, but an elastic bag, with a suitable mouth-piece, is usually employed for this purpose.

Physiological Actions

If the important róle which oxygen plays in the economy of Nature furnished a measure of its powers when administered as a remedy, it would be a most important therapeutic agent. When inhaled in the pure state (not as air), it produces singularly little constitutional disturbance. A sensation of warmth in the larynx, trachea, and bronchi, is first experienced; the pulse, as a rule, somewhat increases, though it may be lessened in frequency; a sense of mental exhilaration and a disposition to greater bodily activity are produced; the appetite becomes keener; but no constant influence on the excretions has been noted (Demarquay). Experiments on animals have demonstrated that the inhalation of oxygen per se does not have an injurious effect on animal life (A. H. Smith). On the contrary, as Hayem has recently shown, the administration of oxygen in from forty to ninety litres per day, given in two doses and mixed with a determinate quantity of air, energizes to a considerable degree the nutritive functions; it increases the appetite, slightly elevates the temperature, stimulates the cardiac movements, and augments the body-weight. These results are due in the main to the effect of oxygen on the blood; it increases the number and stimulates the organic activity of the red blood-globules. Although this action is not constant, the effects may become so by the greater nutritional changes which are thus promoted. When the inhalations are suspended, these effects on the blood cease. Anne's results, obtained by a course of experiment on himself, entirely confirm those obtained by Hayem.

Therapy

Oxygen is indicated and has been used with success in diseases of the respiratory organs, characterized by dyspnoea, due to causes interfering with the oxygenation of the blood, in emphysema, asthma, croup, asphyxia, chloroform narcosis, asphyxia from toxic gases, etc. In these cases oxygen acts in a manner which is perfectly obvious: the labor of breathing and the damage to the respiratory center are lessened by the addition to the blood of oxygen in larger quantity than is supplied by the air. In these cases, pure oxygen, or a mixture of one part of the gas to two or three of air, may be employed. The more extreme the dyspnoea, the greater the necessity for undiluted oxygen.

Oxygen is also indicated, and has been successfully employed, in certain diseases characterized by insufficient oxidation: chlorosis, anaemia, leucocythemia, diabetes, albuminuria, etc. In such cases the internal administration of chalybeate medicines, or mineral waters, should accompany the inhalations of oxygen. Pure oxygen is not necessary; an admixture with three parts of air will suffice, and the inhalation should be made morning and evening.

The evidence is satisfactory that oxygen-inhalations produce good results in some cases of phthisis. Those cases appear to be most benefited in which emaciation, dyspeptic symptoms, etc., have occurred, without marked change in the condition of the lungs. When hectic fever comes on, and excavations have occurred, the utility of oxygen has ended, except as a palliative of dyspnoea. Pinard reports a case of vomiting of pregnancy, uncontrollable by other means, promptly arrested by oxygen inhalations. Hayem gives similar facts, and also reports the good effects of this remedy in gastralgia, dyspepsia, and other functional disorders of the stomach. In cancer, chronic catarrh, and dilatation of the stomach, it affords relief without having a curative action.