In 1799, Dr Beddoes established the Pneumatic Institute which specialised in incurable diseases. Along with Davy, Beddoes's assistant was Peter Roget, author of the famous Thesaurus. This building, of number 7, housed the reception rooms and Infirmary of the Institute. Beddoes advertised for patients suffering from consumption, asthma and other respiratory diseases for which the Institute would offer free care. For wealthier patients, such as those visiting from the spa at Hotwells, the Institute sold inhaling kits.
A cattle-stall was constructed in the yard and attached to a room on the ground floor of Dowry Square. The long-lived notion of Beddoes leading cows up stairs was initiated by Maria Edgeworth, who wrote: ‘one of his hobbies was to introduce cows into the invalids’ bedrooms, that they might inhale the breath of the animals’. This was a misrepresentation – Beddoes actually used to cows to control the temperature of the patients’ rooms.
