Pneumatic Institution

It was established by physician and science writer Thomas Beddoes to study the medical effects of gases, known as factitious airs, that had recently been discovered.

[1] Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was unusually educated about Chemistry,[2] visited Thomas Beddoes in his laboratory in Hope Square, Bristol, in December 1793.

He moved to the Hotwells area of Bristol, where the geothermal springs had been credited with healing properties since the 15th century, and which had become a locus for tuberculosis sufferers seeking a cure.

[5] In November 1798, Beddoes rented two buildings at 6 and 7 Dowry Square, in Hotwells,[6] and in March 1799 the laboratory was moved into the smaller one and the Institution was publicly announced.

In March 1798 Humphry Davy had become interested in the issue after reading Samuel Latham Mitchell's Remarks on the gaseous oxyd of nitrogen and its effects (1795) which claimed that nitrous oxide would have a catastrophic impact if inhaled or placed in contact with a patient's skin, going as far as to suggest that it was the very "principle of contagion".

[7] James Watt supported the Institution because conventional methods had failed to help against his son's pulmonary tuberculosis (known as consumption at the time), which had previously claimed his daughter Jessie.