Consumption

Just a few days ago, the temperature was hovering at 100°F and the humidity was locked inside the old Tuberculosis hospital building like a fever cabinet, making the boards on the windows swell and peel. There were no objects in here that dated beyond the mid 1970s. My flashlight scanned the darkness of a boarded-up ward and caught something glimmering in the middle of the long, narrow room. I walked up, wiping the steady stream of salty sweat that was not refreshing in any kind of way.

Two large glass jars were mounted upon a wooden base, along with two manometers (used to measure pressure) on the left side. One of the bottles still had a cap, where nozzles were located to hook various tubes into. It was also filled with a yellow fluid. Intrigued, I brought the apparatus into the shaft of sunlight that streamed in from a window whose board had fallen off.

Details could now be made out in the strong sunlight. The metal tag read Pilling Made Improved Robinson Pneumothorax Apparatus, although I had no idea what that meant. Large white chunks sat in the bottom of the jar, looking like some kind of preserved tissue.

I'm not sure what they are, or how they got there, as the holes in the lid seemed too small to let such viscous material inside. I would guess at the tissue being remnants of sputum (a mucus that forms inside the lung of a Tuberculosis patient), assuming the contents hadn't changed from the machine's last use. Perhaps the consistency and mass had changed over the forty or so years this jar has been sitting in the building...

Another apparatus was found in a bathroom nearby, oddly located next to a sign for a canteen. The liquid in this one was the same color, but free of any solids.

I've seen these devices before, but I never found out what they were used for. Armed with the name on the metal tag and some searching, I learned that artificial pneumothorax was a treatment for TB which intentionally collapsed the lung, giving it time to rest and heal. The process was also known as "resting the lung."

An incision was made into the chest and a specialized needle was inserted into the pleural cavity - a space that surrounds the lung and regulates pressure to expand and collapse the organ as we breathe. Nitrogen was then pumped into this cavity until the lung collapsed, which essentially squeezed the organ out like a sponge. Over time the lung would restore pressure by air being naturally absorbed into the body, and multiple pneumothorax treatments were required so the organ would remain collapsed for a sufficient amount of time. About thirty bottle refills were required to keep the lung collapsed for a year.

An interesting 1913 New York Times article is available to read, which describes the process in detail. Below is an illustration from the article that shows a Robinson's pneumothorax apparatus; the ones in the photos above are of an improved design.