Test using vapourated expired nasal breathing in medicine 100 years ago and in paestum 2 300 years ago [Nasaler Atembeschlagtest bei Zwaardemaker und Glatzel vor über 100 Jahren und in Paestum vor 2 300 Jahren]

摘要

This historical sketch follows the traces of a mirror, once used to test the last breath of a dying woman. It was found on the fresco of a tomb in Paestum dated about 320 BC. In 1889, Hendrik Zwaardemaker (Utrecht) was the first to present a hygrometric functional test using a cold mirror placed under the nose to estimate the degree of airflow obstruction during exhalation. In 1901, Ernst Glatzel (Berlin) modified Zwaardemaker's concept by engraving a series of equidistant arcs into his metallic mirror to further quantify the amounts of condensed vapour in the expired air. The Glatzel-mirror was used in Germany until after the Second World War.