My dear Wynn
The journey gave me increased pain, less
however than I expected, & I feel no ill effects from
it. I have consulted with one Physician before I put myself
under
Beddoes, in
whom I have perfect faith. he was inclined to
believe it nervous, the effect of excessive irritability.
recommended exercise, as little application as possible to
any study – & by no means the leaning posture of
writing. my chest he said was by no means of a consumptive
make, but he hinted the cow-house as a remedy. [1] I am myself from weighing the various
symptoms led to apprehend an organic affection. the pain is
most after eating, when the arterial action is strongest.
leaning to the right relieves me, – besides I am sensible of
irregular action at the heart. Bedford when he sent me the extract from
Maundeville [2]
wrote to me about neglecting the law. what would he have me
do?
The passage respecting the crystal alludes to
the old opinion of its origin [3] –
that it is water, frozen & by length of time condensed
& hardened into a gem. the mass of ice under which it
had lain, lookd green like the ocean from its magnitude –
exactly as the ocean itself does. I am learned in gems &
their virtues. with this key there is no difficulty in this
passage.
I shall see Beddoes this
morning. he is a man envied for his talents, & disliked
as an innovator. xx in
diseases where the usual remedies are confessedly useless –
as in consumption – & paralytic cases – Beddoes tries
experiments. & is he not right? in palsies this
beatifying gas [4] is working
miracles. indeed this Pneumatic Institution [5] promises to be of the
greatest importance – I am only sorry it is so little
supported, & that the expence falls so heavy on a few
men. one of the Wedgewoods gave 500 £ for his second subscription
– & without such assistance it could not have been set
on foot.
God bless you
yrs affectionately
Robert Southey.
Monday. 9 Dec. 1799.
Notes* Address: To/ C W W Wynn Esqr/ 5 Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/
London/ direct Kingsdown Parade/ Bristol
Postmark:
B/ DEC 10/ 99
Endorsement: Dec 9 1799
MS:
National Library of Wales, MS
4811D
Unpublished. BACK [1] The idea that tuberculosis
could be cured by living in a barn, next to cattle. For
Beddoes’s experiment see Morning Post, 22
November 1799, which had announced that Thomas Beddoes’s
‘An Account of the Effects of Residence with Cows, in
Phthisical Cachexy and in various Stages of Confirmed
Pulmonary Consumption’ would be published
‘Speedily’. BACK [2] On 24
October 1799 (Letter 450), Southey had asked Bedford to
find information about the garden of Aloaddin or
Aladeules. It was used in a note to Thalaba the
Destroyer (1801), Book 7, line 256. BACK [3] See the extract from Thalaba the
Destroyer, Book 2, quoted in Robert Southey
to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 28 November 1799,
Letter 457. Southey gave some of his sources for this
belief about crystals in his note to Thalaba the
Destroyer (1801), Book 2, line 237. BACK [4] Nitrous oxide, or ‘laughing gas’. BACK [5] The Pneumatic Institute,
Dowry Square, Bristol, whose well-connected patrons
included Thomas Wedgwood. BACK |
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