Thomas Beddoes to T. G. Estcourt, 22 January 1808
My dear Sir
I received yrs very safely with the inclosed drt for sixty pounds for which I thank you
The pain in the parts you complain of I should think may be removed as it seems to arise from some torpor of the bowels & parts above – I propose a warm plaster over the ribs & some strengthening, very gently aperient, pills which should be taken so as to produce scarcely any difference in the action of the bowels – There is doubtless some degree of disposition to irregular movements & feelings from the bladder to the chest as appears from the morning history which you originally gave me & all the subsequent down to the last – The means which I have suggested will at least keep it under & another summer’s cold bathing removes it – I presume that rubbing the abdomen wherever the plaister does not lie & the loins with a coarse towel or hard brush will be very serviceable The common fleshbrush I find good for little or nothing –
I have had two interviews with the Miss Praeds I think I have found out to a certainty where her great complaint lies & I have little doubt of its eventual removal in twelve months – Her aunts assure me that she was never asked any one of the questions, which immediately pointed out to them how she is affected –
You will of course meet Davies Giddy who has studied himself, in spite of a good constitution, into the first stage of consumption oftener than once & who seems poorly qualified to stand a hard & cold parliamentary campaign.
In hopes to hear good accounts from New Park & with thanks for your offer to frank letters I remain my dear Sir
Yr most faithful sert
Thomas Beddoes
22 Jan. 1808
For T. G. Estcourt Esq
℞
Picis Burgundicae part: x
Emplastr: cantharid: part i
M bene ut fiat emplastrum medium loco dolente imponendum
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Pilul: aloes c myrrh: gr i
Extr colocynth: c gr 1ss
Ol carui essent: gtt ii
Pulv: antimon grss
--------- myrrh: griii
Saponis q. s. ut ft pilulae iii gran. iv
Omnis semel alternis diebus sumendae
TB
MS: Gloucestershire Archives D1571 F227