title: [Test using vapourated expired nasal breathing in medicine 100 years ago and in paestum 2 300 years ago].
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Fakultät der Universität Ulm.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pirsig
mesh_terms: D001944:Breath Tests; D003643:Death; D045853:Exhalation; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D009426:Netherlands; D013227:Steam
chemical_list: D013227:Steam