1808

Thomas Beddoes to Francis Douce, 24 March 1808

Sir

I acknowledge with thanks your ready & polite answer – When you have leisure & inclination to attend to my intrusive curiosity, I shall certainly be rejoiced <to hear> from you again –

The connection between the state of health & the manners of respective periods will scarce receive material illustration till some closer union take place between antiquarian & medical information – To make a beginning some experienced & learned practitioners of medicine must be assisted by the antiquary; or some antiquary, assisted by a physician, must extract & digest the scattered notices of ages –

I am glad that I have so far followed the guides you deem good – particularly in a tract on consumption – I had examined Mr Strutts works diligently also Hollingshead, those local antiquaries which I understood to be the most accurate & enlightened, Sinclair’s statist^l reports, the modern illustrator of Shakespeare & various foreign authors – What fruit I have gathered, I sh^d be very glad for a real antiquary to examine – You may deem it singular, that I sh^d have deduced & recommended in the harsh winds of this season the very mufflers you figure in yr late 1^st volume so far as they cover the air-passages, the mouth & nostrils – Hence I now see many infants hereabouts with them or veils, by which I hope & think they escape severe colds, pleurisies &c – I will immediately transmit to you a copy of that tract & inclose an order for another –

I was glad to find you confirming what I have stated in regard to acute disorders – my general opinion is that these are less fatal & frequent, especially among the more opulent classes, but consumption, nervous complaints & a feeling of feebleness or listlessness much more universal – It is I believe an undoubted fact that fever has almost disappeared among the troops, & consumption vastly increased – This quite of late –

You will if you please to the trouble some time, see at large what I have put in print – some of the points are that

• 1. Our ancestors were more active & lived more in the air –
• 2. That their houses were less confined, except perhaps the sleeping rooms – You seem to have adopted an opposite opinion – you must have better grounds than I can have – The very large chimney pieces, when chimneys came in, the less close joiners’ work, the want of plastered ceilings in many cases, looser windows are circumstances upon which I rest my belief == Down to Count Rumford’s improvements we seem to have been contriving more & more how to keep out the external air –
• 3. Animal food, especially salted, was more in use & vegetables (gardenstuff) much less – Qy did they take so much hot liquid, putting the supposed specific action of tea on the nerves aside –
• 4. The opulent classes used their muscles more – which by physiological inference, must have made an immense difference in the whole constitution –
• 5. They fretted their sensibility less – as by less novel reading, less vanity of exhibition of accomplishments – These two last circumstances w^d cooperate & change the habit prodigiously – It is true that the opinion of y^e degeneracy ascends to Homer & the bible – still the generations really alter – but from what causes or in what precise respects are questions equally difficult & curious – I am Sir yr obliged & respectful sert

Thomas Beddoes

Address: Thomas Douce Esq / British Museum
MS: Bodleian MS Douce d. 21, ff. 158–59