BEDDOES (Thomas). Observations on the Nature and Cure of Calculus, Sea Scurvy, Consumption, Catarrh, and Fever: together with conjectures upon several other subjects of physiology and pathology.1793

London: Printed for J. Murray, First edition, xvi, 278, [2]pp., new endpapers, recent half calf, spine gilt. Beddoes here is concerned with the four illnesses that were major problems in his day. "He believed that scurvy and obesity were caused by a deficiency of oxygen and advanced consumption and catarrh by an excess of oxygen... Beddoes concluded that scorbutic illness was related to the absence of fresh air and specifically oxygen in lower decks on long sea voyages, especially in slave ships."—Papper. Wellcome II, p. 128; Papper, Romance, Poetry, and Surgical Sleep: Literature Influences Medicine. p. 45.