‘the first example … of an extensive scheme of pure scientific medical investigation’: Thomas Beddoes and the Medical Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, 1794 to 1799 Frank A.J.L. James Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, England Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4BS, England
[email protected] The Eighth Wheeler Lecture Royal Institution, 12 October 2015 RSCHG Occasional Paper No. 8, published November 2016 ISBN: 2050-0424 Series Editor: Dr Anna Simmons ORCID identification number (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0499-9291) Acknowledgements I thank the following archives for permission to study manuscripts and other documents in their collections: Library of Birmingham (LoB), Cornwall Record Office (CRO), Wedgwood Museum (WM), The National Archives (TNA), Bristol Record Office (BRO), British Library (BL), National Library of Ireland (NLI), Bedfordshire and Luton Archive Service (BALAS), the Royal Institution (RI), Natural History Museum (NHM), the Royal Society of London, the Linnean Society, Bristol Central Library, McGill University, Chatsworth, Lambton Park and the Bodleian Library. Letters written by Humphry Davy are freely available on-line at <www.davy-letters.org.uk> as part of the project to publish them by the end of the decade. In the meantime, this paper cites their archival or printed locations. I thank the Research Group of the STS Department at University College London for many valuable comments on an earlier draft. Note to Readers Because of the tendency of the Wedgwood, Watt and Boulton families to use the same forenames in succeeding generations, both the fore and surnames of correspondents are given consistently in the notes.