Dr John Mudge is credited as being the first person to use the word ‘inhaler’. The Mudge inhaler, invented by Dr John Mudge in 1778, was a pewter tankard with a mouthpiece covering the top and an air passage drilled through the handle. As the patient inhaled through the mouthpiece air was drawn through the holes in the handle and passed through the liquid at the bottom of the vessel. Mudge writes on the use of hot steamy water vapour with the addition of opium as a cure for catarrhous cough. In his book which describes the inhaler, Mudge recommended customers to buy their Mudge inhaler from Wm Barnes, the pewterer, of 157 Fleet Street. This example is an original Barnes model, bearing his mark, it is, however, missing the flexible tube. A complete version can be seen in Elisabeth Bennion’s Antique Medical Instruments p257. It was said of the Mudge inhaler, “The vapor of æther, raised in the steam of warm water, has been often inhaled from the instrument recommended by Mr Mudge, but without positive advantage in Asthma.” Robert Bree 1811.
