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Thomas Beddoes

(1760-1808), Physician

Sitter in 2 portraits
Beddoes studied medicine in London and Edinburgh, taking up a lecturing post at Oxford University in 1788. His open adherence to radical politics cost him an endowed chair in Chemistry, he was forced to resign under government pressure in 1792. Branded a dangerous and violent democrat he moved to Bristol, founding the Pneumatic Institution for Inhalation Gas Therapy in 1798, his experiments here with his assistant Humphry Davy were influential in advancing anesthesia techniques and remedies for respiratory disorders. Beddoes opposed self-medication, promoting greater public education on medicine, however, despite the support of many leading radicals his experiments were ridiculed and his career destroyed.

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Thomas Beddoes
by Sampson Towgood Roche
NPG 5070

Thomas Beddoes
by Charles Warren, published by John Samuel Murray, after Edward Bird
NPG D8257

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Thomas Beddoes

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