From Thomas Beddoes to Erasmus Darwin   [? mid-April 1799]

In a letter addressed to Dr. Darwin, in the earlier stage of the investigation of its properties, he informs him of ‘something extraordinary having been made out at the Pneumatic Institution’, although he was not yet competent to pronounce decidedly to what it amounted; ‘the public however’ he adds ‘can now judge of Davy; I think him the most extraordinary person that I have seen, for compass, originality, and quickness of thought.’