Thomas Beddoes to Thomas Wedgwood, November [?1803]

Dear Wedgwood

I beg pardon for making you wait – I have been about after distant patients almost since I saw you & could not get at Fordyce till this morning I have sent to Yeo & on the other side you have the formula –

I have read your acc^t & Poole’s with interest & have put some & have put some loose-bowelled & griped patients on the rice to try whether the induction will bear extending –

I go on well with poor especially with their young families for whom they w^d not have thought of applying for advice had I not called for the children to examine – They get more regular every week

What I want is to have 4 or 5 young medical men – 3 perhaps would do – I w^d parcel out all Bristol between them and make them call occasionally to see the situation of the family and to ensure general regularity of attendance – The young men can be had cheap – I think £550 a year w^d confer the whole benefit of preventive and to a great extent of curative medicine to all Bristol & the counties within attending distance. Such an institution can only be perpetuated by local subscriptions & I intend to try Bristol by & by but not till every body understands the scheme – For once perhaps it is fair to apply to distant residents for assistance on this ground then the plan once proved here may be executed every where – Coutts, L^y Lushington, Sir F Burdett – a Mr Newte, a very rich man in town, have given or promised from £5 to £50 each – I have sent my book to others & have rec^d no answer & now do certainly not expect any – bad times for any scheme –

I shall be very content if I can get £500 or £600 by the end of next year – I shall print the reports very fully at the end of next year & very cheap – being quite persuaded that under very great disadvantages scrophula & consumption can be generally rooted out & prevented –

I have a good deal more scheme as to the poor – as writing diff^t instructions for peculiar cases & [MS damaged] if I can ever touch these Bristol hearts about which I am not very sanguine –

yr^s truly

Thomas Beddoes
Thursday

Mrs B talks of walking to y^r sisters tomorrow morning

Address: T. Wedgwood Esq / Cote
Endorsement: Dr Beddoes
Postmark: BRIST / NOV
EMS: WE/WM/1/1/1/WM35.22

The full versions of these letters with textual apparatus will be published by Cambridge University Press.