Clarke R
Undersea & hyperbaric medicine : journal of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Inc. Date of publication 2024 Apr 1;volume 51(2):107-113.
1. Undersea Hyperb Med. 2024 Second Quarter;51(2):107-113.
Nathanial Henshaw: Not history's pioneering hyperbaric practitioner.
Clarke R(1).
Author information:
(1)National Baromedical Services, Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
A widely accepted belief is that Nathaniel Henshaw was the first practitioner of
hyperbaric medicine. He is said to have constructed the first hyperbaric chamber
where he treated several disorders and provided opportunities to prevent disease
and optimize well-being. While there is little doubt Henshaw was the first to
conceptualize this unique medical technology, careful analysis of his treatise
has convinced this writer that his was nothing more than a proposal. Henshaw's
air chamber was never built. He would have failed to appreciate how its
structural integrity could be maintained in the presence of enormous forces
generated by envisioned changes in its internal pressure and, likewise, how its
door could effectively seal the chamber during hypo-and hyperbaric use. Henshaw
would have also failed to appreciate the limitations of his two proposed
measuring devices and the toxic nature of one. Neither of these would have
provided any quantitative information. The impracticality of his proposed method
of compressing and decompressing the chamber is readily apparent. So, too, the
likely toxic accumulation of carbon dioxide within the unventilated chamber
during lengthy laborious periods required to operate it. Henshaw recommended
pressures up to three times atmospheric pressure and durations for acute
conditions until their resolution. Such exposures would likely result in fatal
decompression sickness upon eventual chamber ascent, a condition of which
nothing was known at the time. It would be another 170 years before a functional
air chamber would finally become a reality. Henshaw's legacy, then, is limited
to the concept of hyperbaric medicine rather than being its first practitioner.
Copyright© Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society.
PMID: 38985147 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
Conflict of interest statement: The authors of this paper declare no conflicts
of interest exist with this submission.
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