Thomas Beddoes to James Currie, 21 October 1802
Dear Doctor
I have been very naughty about your application. But I did not neglect the essential, I hope the gout tincture got safe to you.
I do not know that I am qualified to give better directions than you wd receive with it – Every case I have treated convinces me of its safety – & in all ordinary bad cases, whether stomachic or not, I see it succeed currently. But in certain bad cases where the head is concerned or where arthritico-pneumonic symptoms arise from cold, I think, & am justified by some experiences as well as analogy, in thinking that it is better not to step at once to the exhibition of it. Probably in nearly all cases, some previous medications may be advantageous –
I have now as bad a case as any in Europe here – Sir St. Lushington – he took ether 14 days successively before his arrival, had loathing of food for a year & half, no comfortable <moment> but just after swallowing his eus. viri, shewd paralytic & hydropic symptoms was for ever depressed –
This man has now spirits, appetite, comfort all day long – His crippled & disorganized extrs can not I suppose be restored – but I suspect his life was not worth a month’s purchase – certainly not six – As I think dropsy of the chest was in progress, I can hardly hope but to extend his life a little & make it less wretched; & his recovering so far fills him with the most imprudent resolutions. This operation of the tincture, so striking to Sir St’s family & to me, will not therefore have a chance of being in general justly appreciated – Nay perhaps the case will turn out a reproach to the medicine –
I am
dr Doctor
yrs truly
Thomas Beddoes
21 Oct. 1802
MS: Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library, Yale Medical Historical Library, MSS, Letters: 1802