Balloonomania their ballooning stunts, with Blanchard and his companion Dr. John Jeffries being the first to cross the English channel in a balloon on January 7, 1785. The public reaction among intellectuals and academics was generally cooler, with some critics of balloonomania including the likes of Sir Joseph Banks and Samuel Johnson, who wrote in a 1783 letter to Hester Thrale, who had inquired about the nature of hot air balloons, “Happy are you, Madam, that have ease and leisure to want intelligence of air balloons. Their existence is, I believe, indubitable, but I know not that they can possibly be
John Sheldon (anatomist) October. It carried scientific instruments, but failed to ascend: Blanchard threw instruments overboard. They landed at Sunbury-on-Thames, and quarrelled, with Blanchard carrying on the flight alone. With John Jeffries, Sheldon then tried to have the Royal Society support more balloon ascents, but without success. Sheldon spent time in studying the lymphatic system, an area on which William Cumberland Cruikshank also was working. He devoted attention to embalming, too. Both interests came from William Hunter's inspiration, and were lifelong. Sheldon had a celebrated body of a young woman embalmed: there are differing accounts. It was that of a patient who had