Thomas Beddoes to Thomas Wedgwood, 3 August 1797
Augt 3
Dear Sir
I am glad you agree with me in thinking my removal may well be delayed by a few months: And it also gives me sincere satisfaction that you approve the plan of the Bristol lectures. My wish is to make them interesting & talked of in other places if possible. The two young men who have engaged to deliver them are extremely well qualified – I shall do every thing I can think of that may conduce to their success – The object will be to select such subjects as can be treated in a manner useful to individuals & families – If we succeed here, a similar plan wd more certainly in town? & it wd be easy to find one or two young surgeons who would undertake the course – I would take a part or not just as might be judged adviseable. I know very well that some at least of my chemical lectures at Oxford were dull – The subject is often so to those who look only to be entertained by shewy experiments – & I was often unwell – However, when the matter was to their taste, I found the hearers were abundantly interested – I had greater classes than any lecturer before or since – I once gave a compendious course in mineralogy & had a crowded audience of whom more than half were from 40 to 80 years of age – & the attendance never slackened. Frequently in the drier parts of the later chemical courses I felt the <same> want of interest as my auditors – Those lectures were stupid enough –
As to the application of the arts to <popularise> physiological knowledge observe only what a profession of labour has been bestowed on the pernicious nonsense of Lavater. That interest may be excited by a medical publication Buchan is a proof – Now do you not think one might interest some anatomists & several engravers in a work of preventive medicine. Fine engravings would surely add to the interest of the work & may be made subservient to useful information – & I think the artists wd be content with contingent profits. Preventive medicine has never been cultivated, though it is much the most important of the two divisions. The faculty had no motive to attend to it; & the public has never felt its importance – though I believe they may now be brought by proper measures to be sensible to it – Since I saw you I have had strict enquiry made concerning the state of health among the Bristol Butchers. The information is curious, & satisfactory. As a check upon Bristol, I mean to extend the enquiry through Bath & Worcester – The result, I believe, will be of great use to my essay on consumption.
I have sent your brothers 5 Guineas to Dr Hamilton – & remain yours very truly
Thomas Beddoes
I have a valuable report from the royal hospital at Plymouth respecting the use of nitric acid in lues V – Its powers in 60 selected bad cases appeared superior to those of ☿ [mercury] – & no debility hectic fever or other fever occurred during its use. The report is sent to me to publish – & this I shall do directly –
Address: Thomas Wedwood Esq / Etruria / Staffordshire [readdressed in another hand:] Post Office / Bala / Merionethshire
Endorsement: Dr Beddoes
MS: WE/WM/1/1/1/WM35.16