Received Smith's letter of 19 [April]; sorry to hear the indifferent accounts of Smith's sister. Determined not to quit this house though this winter has been severe: lost many sheep and has already sold 330 skins, thinks corn will be scarce and bad, and has not sown his oats due to the wet. His daughter [Mariamne Johnes] sending in another letter Conchium flower that Smith requested some time ago. Asks Smith to acquire for him from Bristol "this famous oxygenated muriatic acid that gives such a powerful stimulus to seeds".
Sees that Dr [Robert John] Thornton [(c 1768-1837), physician and writer on botany] has "done wonders" with Dr [Thomas] Beddoes' [(1760-1808), chemist and physician] airs [Beddoes founded the Pneumatic Institute, which advocated the inhalation of "factitious airs" as a medical treatment]; "they will make a new & grand epocha in medicine" and "surely he deserves more thanks than this ungrateful nation will give him". Wonders if they would do any good for his daughter in reducing the tumours she has near the chin and on some of her glands; her back is now almost flat.
Davies still wants Croft though he is "a poor devil & not deserving of it" but has a proposal for another estate which if it succeeds will make him comfortable.