Excerpt from A System Physiologic Therapeutics, Vol. 10: A Practical Exposition of the Methods, Other Than Drug-Giving, Useful for the Prevention of Disease and in the Treatment of the Sick; Pneumotherapy Including Aerotherapy and Inhalation Methods and Therapy While, in its broad outlines, the present volume follows the general plan of the System of which it is part, the critical reader will observe some important differences in matters of detail; these are purposive, for the better exposition of the subjects discussed. In the first place, the history of the development of pneumotherapy and of its various methods receives much greater attention than has been given to history in the other volumes of the series. Secondly, the details of physiologic experiments - and, in Part II, of postmortem studies - by various observers, are given with considerable fullness. The reasons for setting forth these matters at length ought to be obvious. Aerotherapy is as yet far from being appreciated at its true worth by the majority of physicians, and information concerning its evolution and its basic facts is much less general than is the corresponding knowledge in relation to other branches of physiologic therapeutics - mechanotherapy or hydrotherapy, for example. Furthermore, the conclusions of experimenters as to the physiologic and pathogenetic effects and the therapeutic application of condensed air and rarefied air - whether in caissons or pneumatic chambers, in balloon-voyages or mountain-ascensions, during sojourn at altitudes, or when various forms of differential apparatus are utilized - are not entirely concordant; and to have set forth dogmatically the views of author or editor without full statement and fair examination of discrepant opinions could scarcely have been satisfactory. Nevertheless, the reader is not left in doubt amid a multitude of conflicting assertions and antagonistic recommendations. In many instances the author has succeeded in reconciling observations apparently contradictory, by pointing out the diverse conditions under which they were made and suggesting the necessary corrections in the results; in others, either through original studies or by carefully analyzing the published records and comparing them with established data of physical and biologic science, he has - in the editor's deliberate judgment - correctly settled the disputed points; while in every instance he has given a clear and definite opinion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.