A prospect now opened to him of realizing a scheme to which his wishes had for a long time been ardently directed, that of establishing a pneumatic institution, where the medical efficacy of the perma nently elastic fluids, the fruits of the modern im provements in chemistry, could be fairly put to the test of experiment, by being administered on an ex tensive scale. The metropolis first suggested itself as an eligible spot for the formation of the projected establishment; but several obstacles having occurred in the execution of this plan, the neighbourhood of Bristol was at length fixed upon as the most proper place for the purpose. In making the various ar rangements required in the infancy of such an in stitution, and which presented peculiar difficulties, he derived material assistance from the cordial co-oper ation of Mr Edgeworth, the author of Practical Edu cation, with whose family he soon became more closely connected, by marrying one of that gentle man's daughters ; an event which took place in April 1794. The pneumatic institution continued to oc cupy his attention for many years, in the course of which, a great number of publications issued from his pen, illustrating the principles on which he ex pected it to be useful, and detailing the experiments and the results to which it gave rise. The principal of these are the following: "A Letter to Dr Darwin, on a new mode of treating Pulmonary Consumption," in 1793 ; as a supplement to which appeared, in 1794, Letters from Dr. Withering, Dr Ewart, Dr Thornton, &c. together with an analysis of a paper by Lavoisier, on the state of the air in crowded as semblies, and of another by Vauquelin, on the liver of the skate.—Considerations on the Medical Use, and on the Production of Factitious Airs, in five parts, • which came out successively at different periods, from the year 1794 to 1796.—In 1795, he published an Outline of a Plan for determining the Medicinal Powers of Factitious Airs.—In 1797, Suggestions towards setting on foot the projected Establishment for Pneumatic Medicine : and Reports relating to Nitrous Acid, in confirmation of the efficacy of that remedy in syphilitic affections.—In 1799, Contribu tions to Medical and Physical Knowledge, collected principally from the West of England.—Notice of some Observations made at the Pneumatic Institution. —A second, and afterwards a third Collection of Re ports relating to Nitrous Acid. Considerable diffi culty was at first experienced in the construction and management of the apparatus required for carrying on the objects of this institution ; these were, however, in no long time entirely surmounted by the friendly assistance of Mr Watt, whose exer tions at this critical period were eminently service able, and are acknowledged in a dedication prefixed to first part of the Considerations. Mr Wil liam Clayfield and Mr Read also contributed their assistance in the invention of different parts of the pneumatic apparatus. At the opening of the institution in 1798, the sums subscribed were found to be very inadequate to the purposes for which it was designed ; but every deficiency in this respect was amply supplied by the liberality of Mr Thomas Wedgewood, who offered Dr Beddoes L.1000 to enable him to carry the plan into immediate exe cution. All that was now wanted was to procure a superintendent ; and he had the good fortune to en gage in that capacity a young man, who had already given proofs of extraordinary talents, and to whose penetrating genius chemistry has since been so deep ly indebted. There needs no other indication to suggest the name of Davy,—a name that will descend to distant ages, as associated with so many import ant discoveries in philosophical science. The his tory of the pneumatic institution, indeed, derives considerable splendour from many of these discover ies, which were perfected in its laboratory, and which were first announced to the world through the medium of the publications above mentioned; and in the work entitled Researches, Chemical and Philo sophical ; chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide, or De phlogisticated Nitroui Air, and its Respiration. By Humphrey Davy, Superintendent of the Medical Pneumatic Institution. London,1800. The discovery of the chemical properties of this gas, and of its as tonishing effects on the system when respired, were among the first, and must ever be esteemed the most brilliant; of the results of this institution ; it raised the most sanguine anticipations in the mind of Dr Beddoes, and called forth all his eloquence in the description of what it already had and might be ex pected to accomplish. These, like the other splendid visions, in which his ardent imagination was but too prone to indulge, have never been realized ; and have even created, by their signal failure, an unfor tunate prejudice against future attempts to improve the art of medicine by novel methods of treatment founded on chemical or philosophical principles.
The original objects of the institution being Sound unattainable, were successively abandoned, and it assumed, by insensible gradations, the .form of the more common establishments for the relief of the sick ; and the prevention rather than the cure of diseases became the principal aim of its conductors. In 1807, it was finally relinquished by Dr Beddoes to the care of Mr King and Dr Stock.
A great variety of medical topics in the mean time engaged the active mind of Dr Beddoes, and gave employment to his pen. In the strictly prac tical branch of the art we may enumerate, in addi tion to the works above mentioned,—in 1793, A Letter to Dr Darwin on a new mode of treating Pulmonary Consumption.—In 1795, an edition of Brown's Elements of Medicine, with a preface and notes.—Translation from the Spanish of Gimbernat's new method of operating in Femoral Hernia.—In 1799, Popular Essay on Consumption.—In 1801, Essay on the medical and domestic Management of the Consumptive, on Digitalis, and on Scrofula.- In 1807, Researches, Anatomized and Practical, con cerning Fever as connected with Inflammation. In this latter work he successfully combats the theory of Dr Clutterbuck and of Ploucquet, in which fever is supposed to consist essentially in topical inflamma tion or its membranes.
The object which Dr Beddoes had ever most at heart was, to excite a lively and general attention to the means of preserving health, and of repelling the first inroads of disease, by the diffusion of medical knowledge throughout all ranks of the community, as far as they were capable of acquiring it. His at tention was uniformly directed to this favourite ob ject, and he suffered no opportunity to escape of en forcing those maxims which tend to prevent the ne cessity of the interference of his art. His works on popular subjects, on the improvements of medical education, and the exercise of the profession ; and the popular lectures which he promoted, and in which he himself took an active part, all tended to this object. To this head may be referred the fol lowing publications : In 1794, A Guide for Self-pre servation and Parental Affection. A Pro for the Improvement of Medicine.—In 1797, A Lecture In troductory to a Popular Course Anatomy.—In 1798, A Suggestion towards an 'ential Improve ment in the Bristol Infirmary. But more especially his Hygeia, or Essays, Moral and Medical, on the causes afficting the Personal State of the Middling and Affluent Classes, in 3 vols. 1801-2 ; in which he embraces a great variety of topics, and describes, with a glowing pencil, and occasionally with extra ordinary eloquence, the sufferings of patients under different diseases. In 1806, there appeared The Ma nual Health, or the Invalid conducted safely through the Seasons.—In 1808, A Letter to Sir Jo seph Banks on the prevailing Discontents, Abuses, and Imperfections in Medicine ; and, in the same Good Advicefor the Husbandman in Harvest, andfo; all those who lalrour hard in hot Births ; as also for others who will take it in Warm Weather; which was the last production he ever wrote, his death happening soon after, of dropsy and enlargement of the pericardium, in December 1808.