Thomas Beddoes | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Beddoes, pencil drawing byEdward Bird | |
| Born | (1760-04-13)13 April 1760 Shifnal, England |
| Died | 24 December 1808(1808-12-24) (aged 48) |
| Education | Bridgnorth Grammar School |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College, Oxford,University of Edinburgh |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Known for | History of Isaac Jenkins |
| Spouse | Anna Maria Edgeworth 1773–1824 |
| Children | Thomas Lovell Beddoes |
Thomas Beddoes (13 April 1760 – 24 December 1808) was an Englishphysician and scientific writer. He was born inShifnal,Shropshire and died in Bristol fifteen years after opening his medical practice there. He was a reforming practitioner and teacher of medicine, and an associate of leading scientific figures. He worked to treattuberculosis.
Beddoes was a friend ofSamuel Taylor Coleridge, and, according to E. S. Shaffer, an important influence on Coleridge's early thinking, introducing him to thehigher criticism.[1] The poetThomas Lovell Beddoes was his son. A painting of him by Samson Towgood Roch is in theNational Portrait Gallery, London.
Beddoes was born in Shifnal, Shropshire, on April 13, 1760, at Balcony House. He was educated atBridgnorth Grammar School andPembroke College, Oxford. He enrolled in theUniversity of Edinburgh's medical course in the early 1780s.[2] There he was taught chemistry byJoseph Black and natural history byKendall Walker. He also studied medicine in London underJohn Sheldon. In 1784 he published a translation ofLazzaro Spallanzani'sDissertations on Natural History, and in 1785 produced a translation, with original notes, ofTorbern Olof Bergman'sEssays on Elective Attractions.[2]
He took his degree of doctor of medicine at Pembroke College, Oxford University, in 1786.
In 1794, he married Anna, daughter of his associate at theBristol Pneumatic Institution,Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Their son, poet Thomas Lovell Beddoes, was born in 1803 in Bristol.
Beddoes visited Paris after 1786, where he became acquainted withLavoisier. Beddoes was appointed professor of chemistry atOxford University in 1788.[3] His lectures attracted large and appreciative audiences; but his sympathy with theFrench Revolution excited a clamour against him, he resigned his readership in 1792.
Beddoes was a prolific writer from the early 1790s through the 1810s. In January 1792 he wrote hisLetter on Early Instruction, Particularly that of the Poor, which described how injustice and oppression provoked mob violence. He believed it was necessary to humanise the “minds of the poorer class of Citizens,” which would involve education, the improvement of material conditions, the removal of abuses, and the denouncement of violence.[4] In the following year he published theHistory of Isaac Jenkins, a story which powerfully exhibits the evils of drunkenness, and of which 40,000 copies are reported to have been sold.[2] In 1796, Beddoes publishedAn Essay on the Public Merits of Mr. Pitt, which criticised Britain’s prime ministerWilliam Pitt’s domestic and foreign policies during the Seven Years’ War with France. He saw Pitts’s policies as ignorant about the conditions of the poor and negligent of the useful applications of scientific knowledge.[5]
Beddoes also advocated for medical reform, attacking the widespread lay practices of self-medication, which he believed were the cause of many unnecessary deaths. Through his writings, Beddoes promoted public education on healthy living, exercise, and public health issues such astuberculosis.[6] Beddoes also felt that valuable scientific observations and data were going to waste. He actively argued for creating a centrally organised system for collecting, indexing and distributing important medical data to the physicians' community. He proposed a national organisation for preventive medicine upon seeing the worsening condition of the poor and the large number of patients at his pneumatic institution.[7]
Beddoes addressed tuberculosis, seeking treatments for the disease. He had a clinic in Bristol from 1793 to 1799 and later began the Pneumatic Institution to test various gases for the treatment of tuberculosis. The institution was later changed to a general hospital.
Beddoes wrote more than thirty books, pamphlets, and articles urging these reforms and ideological changes. As an advocate of public health measures and reforms at a time when England lagged behind France in organised medicine, he believed his responsibility as a physician was to prevent disease through understanding and tackling its social, material, and physiological causes.
Between 1793 and 1799 Beddoes had a clinic at Hope Square,Hotwells inBristol where he treated patients with tuberculosis. On the principle thatbutchers seemed to suffer less from tuberculosis than others, he kept cows in a byre alongside the building and encouraged them to breathe on his patients.[8] This became the source of local ridicule, amongst claims that animals were kept in the clinic's bedrooms, against the protests of landlords.[8]
Despite the link he saw between proximity to cows and lower incidence of tuberculosis, he remained sceptical whenEdward Jenner began using a cow-derivedvaccination forsmallpox a few years later.[8]
While living in Hotwells he began work on a project to establish an institution for treating disease by the inhalation of different gases, which he calledpneumatic medicine.[9][10]
He was assisted byRichard Lovell Edgeworth. In 1799 thePneumatic Institution was established atDowry Square, Hotwells. Its first superintendent wasHumphry Davy,[11] who investigated the properties ofnitrous oxide in its laboratory. The original aim of the institution was gradually abandoned; it became a general hospital, and was relinquished by its founder in the year before his death.[2] By the time Beddoes retired from practice in 1807, he estimated that his institution had treated over ten thousand patients.
Beddoes was a man of great powers and wide acquirements, which he directed to noble and philanthropic purposes. He strove to effect social good by popularizing medical knowledge, a work for which his vivid imagination and glowing eloquence eminently fitted him.
— Encyclopedia Britannica (1911),[2]
Beddoes became an outspoken supporter of the French Revolution in its early years. He considered the republic the best political system, having observed the corruption and partisanship of the British Parliament. However, even while sympathising with democratic protest, Beddoes feared popular insurrection and mob violence.[12]
Beddoes was a friend of several members of theLunar Society of Birmingham, a society of prominent Enlightenment figures. Following thePriestley Riots of 1791, Beddoes publicly voiced his opposition to the 'Church and King' riots, his sympathies with France, his admiration for French scientists and social scientists, and his opposition to thewar on France. In 1792, he was investigated by the Home Office on suspicions of "sowing sedition" by distributing political pamphlets that spoke out against the establishment and for his connections to the Lunar Society and allegedly,Erasmus Darwin'sDerby Philosophical Society.[citation needed]
Besides the writings mentioned above, Beddoes was also associated with the following:
Beddoes edited the second edition ofJohn Brown'sElements of Medicine (1795), and also translated a selection ofJohann Karl August Musäus'sVolksmärchen der Deutschen into English asPopular Tales of the Germans (1791).[14]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Beddoes, Thomas".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 614.
