Beddoes Thomas

During his connection with the University, he published, at the Clarendon press, in 1790, an ana lytical account of the writings of Mayow, under the title of Chemical Experiments and Opinions, extract edfrom a Work published in the last Century; in which he asserts the claims of that extraordinary man to the discovery of the principal facts on which the modern system of pneumatic chemistry is found ed ; discoveries which Mayow had achieved at a very early period of life, and which had failed, for upwards of a century, to attract any notice from the philosophic world. In the Philosophical T, airs ' actions for 1791 and 17921-we also find three papers by Dr Beddoes, the one containing Observations on the between Basaltes and Granite, in which he rejects the common division of mountains into primary and secondary, and states some strong argu ments in favour of the volcanic origin of both ; the other giving An Account of some Appearances at • the Conversion of Cast into Malleable Iron, which he supposes to consist in its purification from oxygen, charcoal, and hydrogen, which escape, dur ing the process, in the form of carbonic acid and carhuretted hydrogen gases ; and, in a paper which forms an appendix to the latter, he relates a variety of experiments which he had made, confirming this theory.

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The uncertainty of his future destination, on his retiring from Oxford, does not appear to have in terrupted his literary labours ; for it was at this pe riod that he published his Observations on the Nature (.1 Demonstrative Evidence, with an Explanation of Certain Difficulties occurring in the Elements of Geo metry, and Reflections on Language, 8vo, London, 1793. In this essay he contends, in opposition to the doctrines of the ontologists, and particularly to that of Mr Harris, the author of Hermes, that geo metry is essentially founded in experiment; and that mathematical reasoning proceeds, at every step, upon the evidence of the senses ; or, in other words, that this science is a science of experiment and observa tion, founded solely upon the induction of particular facts ; as much so as mechanics, astronomy, optics, or chemistry. He endeavours to show that Euclid sets out from experiment, and appeals constantly to what we have already learned, or may immediately learn from the exercise of our senses. This paradox he attempts to support by a sophistical analysis of one of the elementary theorems in the first book of Euclid, and of the leading definitions and axioms prefixed to it. He is afterwards led to consider the origin of abstract terms, and the philosophy of and adopts on these subjects the views which have been presented by Mr Home Tooke in his Ema Tfregon1a ; whose speculations, together with those of Lord Monboddo, Schultens, Hemsterhuis, and other Dutch etymologists, he severally reviews and criticises in an appendix of some length.

About the same period he published a work en titled Observations on the Nature and Cure of Cal culus, Sea-Scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, and Fever ; together with Conjectures upon several other Objects of Physiology and Pathology. He there recommends, as a cheap and commodious remedy for calculus, the exsiccated carbonate of soda, made into pills with an equal weight of soap ; in proof of the efficacy of which, he adduces a number of interesting cases. He then proceeds to develope his faYourite patholo gical theories on the diseases which destroy so large a proportion of the human species ; theories on which he afterwards built so many specious, but unfortu nately abortive projects for their cure. Sea-scurvy and pulmonary consumption he conceived to arise froni opposite chemical conditions of the body; the former consisting in a gradual abstraction, the latter in a gradual accumulation of oxygen in the system.

He supports these opinions by a variety of ingenious and plausible arguments ; and proposes submitting' them to the test of experiment, by administering to consumptive patients such gases as may contain a smaller proportion of oxygen than is contained in common atmospheric air. The new views of patho logy which these speculations presented, and the hopes of valuable practical results which they raised, excited great attention in the medical world, and contributed much to increase the reputation of their author.

On leaving Oxford, he retired to the house of his friend Mr Reynolds of Kale) in Shropshire. It was here that he published his admirable History of Isaac Jenkins ; a story intended to impress the most useful of moral lessons on the labouring classes, by exhibit ing the reformation of a drunkard, and his return to habits of sobriety and industry. The execution of this work is worthy of the design. There is, proba bly, none of Dr Beddoes's productions which unites so many peculiar excellencies as this inimitable fic tion, or which displays at once, in so favourable a light, the vigour of his genius, his deep knowledge of the human heart, and the power with which he could command the interest and sympathy of his reader. No work of its -kind has ever had the same success; repeated editions, amounting to above forty thousand copies, were rapidly sold ; and a large impression has since been.issued at the request of a Society for promoting knowledge by the distribution of useful popular books.