1800

Thomas Beddoes to Thomas Wilkinson, 11 August 1800

My dear Sir

I am much obliged by your remittance of £282 pounds – We have now ascertained the air to be a cure of palsy in a large proportion of cases – I remember once conversing with you about nitrous acid as a medicine in venereal diseases – You told me that Sir W. Farquhar assured you it was a good thing but not a cure for those affections – I have no great faith in Sir W nor in any fashionable physician – & I have in my hands proofs which I am sure will satisfy a great part of the <faculty & of the> public that nitrous acid will cure this complaint in all its stages – It is astonishing to what a pitch of perfection this method has been carried – And what is happy for humanity, patients emerge from this treatment fat & strong; instead of being pulled down & thrown into consumption when they are weakly as by mercury as by mercury – Between 2000 & 3000 cases are now accurately registered – & it is demonstrable where people have failed that they have failed from improper administration of the remedy –

But I beg pardon for the detail –

The boys are strong & do not suffer under the heat – However there are indubitable signs about John of a constitution prone to consumption. Though stout & healthy, the bleeding from his nose & the state of his glands with other appearances demonstrate the necessity of persevering to guard his constitution against this fatal calamity – I have of course stated this to his mother –

If you remember, the boys began Latin last October, what would you suppose may be their proficiency? – I think that they understand the grounds & construction most perfectly, so far as they have gone – & <by October next> I will answer for their getting with the most perfect ease a lesson in Ovid’s metamorphoses – Would you believe that they teaze me half a dozen times a day to let them read Ovid to me, & to help them out where they are at a loss. I myself <at first> read them a few lines every day – they were perfectly captivated with the story of Phaeton – & now they apprehend many passages which they have never seen before, immediately on reading them. I have had an opportunity of comparing them with one or two quick boys about their own age, who have been at Latin – These boys are a little before J & W in books, but in another twelvemonth our boys will distance them – & even now the other boys can only just stupidly repeat the very words they have got by rote – J & W can put the sense into their own words & give as many examples as you please. – We have lost M. D’Estrade – but got I think a still better master in his stead – this new master says J & W are the most intelligent children he ever saw – & that coming from others to teach them is quite a recreation.

What they have learned has seemed their own choice – it has scarce ever been against their will – they are very equal in apprehension – John is certainly as clever as his brother –

With comp^ts to Mrs W
I am Dr Sir yours most truly

Thomas Beddoes

Endorsement: Dr Beddoes – Aug^t 1800. N.B This Letter came in a Frank Aug^t 11^th from R.S.L. at Morpeth
MS: Lambton Park MS
Published (in part): Durham, vol. I, p. 47