Thomas Beddoes to Stephen Hammick, [?24] July 1797
I shall lose no time in committing your valuable communication to the press. Your statement is clear, and I have hardly occasion to avail myself of Dr. Geach’s obliging offer of further elucidation. But doubtless you will agree with me, that his additional testimony will be a satisfaction to the public.
With you, the nitrous acid appears to cure the venereal disease expeditiously and compleatly. The patient also, I perceive, comes from the fullest use of the remedy with a constitution so entire, that neither diet, drinks nor country air, are at all necessary.
I should be glad to know how often, in your large experience, you have been disappointed.
Do you observe any peculiar precautions in the preparation of your acid?
Do you take pains to ascertain its specific gravity; or endeavour to bring it to any particular state of oxygenation?
You observe, that the gums have never been rendered sore by this new treatment. Have you never remarked a degree of salivation without soreness?
Do you think the acid stops the progress of the disorder as soon as mercury?
Published: Reports Principally Concerning the Effects of the Nitrous Acid in the Venereal Disease, by the Surgeons of the Royal Hospital at Plymouth and by Other Practitioners (Bristol: printed by N. Biggs for J. Johnson, London, 1797), pp. 26–27.