Antique Vapo-Cresolene Lamp from the 1880s. Once used as a medicinal instrument to cure whooping cough, spasmodic croup, nasal catarrh, colds, bronchitis, coughs, sore throat, pneumonia, the paroxysms of asthma and hay fever, the bronchial complications of scarlet fever and measles, and as an aid in the treatment of diphtheria and certain inflammatory throat diseases. Now we know that instead of aiding these illnesses cresolene was actually piosoning & killing the people who used it.