April 14th, 1797.
You ask my present opinion on consumption. Allow me generally to say, I have now no chemical theory of any one disease. I never held any such opinion. In different ways (at lectures, and in publications), I started conjectures to be compared with facts; and now I think all those conjectures are shewn to be erroneous by facts. I used to think my hypothesis on scurvy very probable, and I was confirmed in this idea by Dr. Trotter. But I at present think we were both mistaken. Good, however, has arisen from these speculations, as they have brought forward observations, which otherwise apparently would never have been made; and some of these observations are useful in practice. When I publish my view of the medical treatment to be pursued in the pneumatic institution, I will unfold what I here say, and add my reasons.
Please cite as “BEDDOES-LETTER-214,” in Ɛpsilon: Thomas Beddoes Collection accessed on