A letter to Erasmus Darwin, M.D. on a new method of treating pulmonary consumption, and some other diseases hitherto found incurable / by Thomas Beddoes, M.D.

  • Beddoes, Thomas, 1760-1808.
Date:
[1793]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Erasmus Darwin, M.D. on a new method of treating pulmonary consumption, and some other diseases hitherto found incurable / by Thomas Beddoes, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    C ] taincd that afphyxia is lefs fuddcnly produced by hydrogene, than by any other fpecies of air, unfit for refpiration. I lay rather more ftrefs upon the following, which is the converfe of this obfervation, I imagine that in conftitutions injured by excefs of fpirituous liquors, and more particularly while they are under the primary operation of fuch liquors, there exifts a deficiency of oxygene; at leaft of oxygene in a ftate of combination fo loofe as it is found in the circu- lating blood and moving fibres. A variety of confiderations with which I will not detain you at this moment, feem to me to confirm this opinion. You recoiled, among others the cafe of the inflammable woman of Coventry, as defcribed by Mr. Wilmer. This woman feems to have reduced herfelf by dram-drinking to fuch a ftate as to be capable of being fet on fire by a fpark, and of burning like very com- buftible matter. And one is juftified by all the known faBs relative to combuftion, in fup- B 2 pofing