Thomas Beddoes to William Withering, 4 August 1793
Bristol Hotwells
August 4th 1793
Dear Sir,
I have twice in a very short space of time experienced the effects of your liberal turn of thinking. I have also had letters & messages from many of the most eminent physicians in G. Britain, all encouraging me to give the difft elastic fluids a full trial in phthisical & other desperate complaints. Some benefit to mankind & some addition to our stock of knowledge in medicine & physiology must result from the execution of such a scheme. But I need not repeat reflections which must have suggested themselves to you. I write at present in order to request the communication of some obsns which (as I understand from Mr. Yorke of Stourport) you have made of a tendency similar to mine. Notwithstanding the slow sale of medical books in general & the recent publication of mine, I have received notice from my bookseller to prepare for a new edition; & if you have leisure to favour me with any ideas upon the subject of phthisis or the administration of elastic fluids in any case whatever, I am persuaded that they wd form a valuable addition to a 2nd edn of my Observations; & whether you send me objections, hints or facts in confirmation of my own opinion, I shall very chearfully insert them.
I have persuaded several ladies to study Botany, but an entire stop is put to the diffusion of the science among the fair sex by your book being out of print. I am afraid a new edition will not very speedily appear. There is one lady here for whom I shd be extremely glad to procure a copy of the Arrangement. Can you direct me how to do it? & when I am asked how soon the 3rd edition may be expected, what must I say?
You have not, I hope, been inattentive to the mineralogy of Portugal. I have met with nothing upon the subject except some few observations of Dolomieu, who mentions the existence of extensive ranges of whinstone mountains. It is likely that extinct volcanoes wd be found in Portugal: but perhaps you did not penetrate into the interior parts of the country. If you collected any specimens & have duplicates to spare, I shd be thankful for them & will endeavour to pay you in kind. Is it true, as I hear, that you return to Lisbon this autumn?
Yours very sincerely
Thomas Beddoes
Address: Dr Withering / Edgbaston / Birmingham
Endorsement: Beddoes Dr 4th Aug: answd / 1st. Sept. – 1793. – having left Oxford – first proposed his Trials of airs in Pthisis &c. / Botany
MS: Typed transcription inserted in a copy of Stock, Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University Library, B399zs 1811