Thomas Beddoes to James Watt, 20 June 1807
20 June 1807
My dear Sir
I shd have answered yr letter long since if I cd have found a better subject than myself I have gone very well & can stand moderate exertion – The most remarkable thing I have seen is the great frequency of typhus in stations where it does not usually appear & the great tendency to relapse – Of those who have died, under all the advantages of attendance the only one I have had particular information about was poor young William Reynolds – He was at Dumfries – & had the cold effusion – I believe fatigue after receiving the infection was what made his case fatal – I saw Jos. Wedgwood Junr very ill indeed of a second relapse, which was brought on by the fatigue of a slow journey & other similar instances occurred – And such was the state of things that you cd almost swear that the same causes wd not have produced the disease or not the relapse communibus annis – But what produced the disposition or in what it consisted I know no more than a Birmingham black – Some obsns enough for a paper & strictly confined to matters of fact have occurred to me; calculated I hope to clear up a little of the puzzle that has existed 3000 years on this subject
You have no doubt seen Davy’s paper – It seems to me almost the greatest thing done in chemistry since for Black’s discovery of fixed air – As there were many previous indications of electrical action in animated bodies, so this gives shape to conjecture on the mode of its operation – Davies Giddy says ores are carried into veins on the back of positive & negative electricity – So on we go deciphering the world
My children go on pretty well – Mrs Beddoes is not worse than usual – We hope you & Mrs Watt are well Perhaps you will bend yr summer course hitherward – I think of sending my family to the North of Devon – Begging to be remembered to yr family & friends of my acquaintance, I am
My dear Sir
yours ever faithfully
Thomas Beddoes
MS: LoB MS 3219/4/048/10