Thomas Beddoes to Josiah Wedgwood, 27 June 1807
27 June
1807
Dear Wedgwood,
I think you can scarce reckon upon a shorter time for constant lying down than two months – I have generally found that a very small evil – Girls work & read – The health improves prodigiously from the lying, I believe, as probably the whole system of the children whose bones grow spontaneously soft requires full respite from exertion – They grow more than under any other circumstances – This constraint is little felt but at first – I now attend a little spirited spoiled child who was treated with machinery till the vertebrae became ulcerated & gave way – Though under 3 years of age he has been down 4 months & very contentedly – yet he was obliged to have setons – a terrible evil for a child –
The best thing to lie upon is I believe a hard mattrass – so they lie with the head taken off the spine & not to be heated, it is sufficient –
How far in a very slight case an inclined plane on which they lean back may be sufficient I have not tried – but I see no advantage of comfort in this position –
I am almost afraid your Bessy will suffer from her journeys – I dare say you make her lie down a good deal & lean in the carriage –
I think Carlisle a very able man & as good a surgeon as any in London –
It will of course be examined how far the vertebrae are inflamed – as is shewn by local heat, swelling, pain on pressure, commencing hectic fever – also if there be any weakness of the lower limbs – micturition &c
I think I must leave it totally to yr own reflections how far you will come round this way into Staffordshire – very likely that may depend on the opinions you get in town, of which I beg to hear the substance, if I shd not see you – With Mrs Beddoes’s & my best regards to those about you believe me Dear Wedgwood yrs truly
Thomas Beddoes
PS I expect to see a case of hydrophobia <to day> if the patient be not dead before I reach him
Address: Josiah Wedgwood Esq / 24 / Charles’s Street / St James’s / London
Endorsement: Dr Beddoes / 27 June 1807
Postmark: JUN29 / 1807
MS: WE/EL/1/1/L40–7053