What are the advantages and shortcomings of the simplest form of oxygen tent, a small canvas hood fitting over the patient's head, supplied with oxygen through an opening at the top? Tents of this type, without motors or cooling units, are in use, especially for children and infants.1 They can be made at a low cost, are extremely easy to transport and adjust, and, if satisfactory, could certainly be universally available for clinical emergencies. Does this equipment provide a sufficient degree of atmospheric control to warrant continuance of its use, and if so, for what purpose and under what circumstances?
In the present studies, a tent of this type,2 which was put at our disposal through the courtesy of Dr. Béla Schick of Mount Sinai Hospital, was operated under various conditions, and a record made of the oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations, the dry bulb temperature, the relative