Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/439

 FRANKLIN

FRANKLIN

He also remarked that bathing would quench the thirst and stop diarrhea, and that bathing or sponging with water or spirits would reduce the temperature by evaporation in fevers. One of his most capable letters is on the heat of the blood and the cause thereof, and also upon the motion of the blood, and he had in his li- brary a glass machine demonstrating this motion through the arteries, veins and capillaries. He discussed learnedly the absorbent vessels and perspiratory ducts of the skin and carried on experiments to prove his theories, while sleep, deafness, and nyctalopia all engaged Franklin's attention. He invented bifocal lenses for Bpectacles and a flexible catheter and was much interested in medical education, holding decided views on the subject. He helped many young n edical students in their desire to study abroad, among them Rush, Morgan, Shippen, Kuhn, and Griffitts. Although Thomas Bond origi- nated the idea of the Pennsylvania Hos- pital, Franklin created it and was its first president.

His letters on lead poisoning are won- derful, and would have been a credit to any physician of that age; his observa- tions upon gout — and they were personal observations — are shrewd and exact. Much could be written of his treatment of nervous diseases by electricity, for many patients consulted him; many doctors wrote to him for advice; even Sir John Pringle begs him to come and treat the daughter of the Duke of Ancaster. Franklin was not carried away by his temporary successes with his method of treatment — "Franklinism, " as it has been called — but gives a very reserved opinion upon its value.

Interested in vital statistics and the mortality of different diseases, he wrote about the great death rate of foundlings and among children not nursed at the breast by their own mothers, and on the growing habit among the French to neglect this duty. He di cu ed the doc- trines of life and death. On several occasions he wrote about the possibility of infection remaining for long periods in

dead bodies after burial. His ability and knowlege in everything pertaining to medicine led the King of France to appoint him a member of the commis- sion which investigated Mesmer's work, and it was Franklin who wrote the re- port. He proved himself a compara- tive anatomist in a description which he wrote about some fossil elephant teeth that he examined. Even Dr. Jan Ingen- housz, physician to Maria Theresa and Joseph II sought his advice before ino- culating the young princes.

One of Franklin's papers was " A Con- jecture as to the Cause of the Heat of the Blood in Health and of the Cold and Hot Fits of Some Fevers," 1750 (?). A curi- ous little pamphlet is a "Dialogue be- tween Franklin and the Gout," dealing with the hygiene and treatment of the disease which plagued him. It was written during one of his visits to Passy.

In 1754, by request, he wrote "Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital from its First Beginning to the Fifth Month, called May, 1 754, " fifteen hundred copies being printed in quarto, Franklin and Hall the printers.

Desirous of helping those who knew little of vaccination, he wrote "Some Account of the Success of Inoculation for the Small-pox in England and America, together with Plain Instructions by Which any Person may be Enabled to Perform the Operation and Conduct the Patient through the Distemper." London. Printed by W. Strahan, MDCCLIX.

Franklin received the Copley medal from the Royal Society in recognition of his discoveries in electricity and held the LL. D. from St. Andrews; the Yale and the Cambridge (Massachusetts), M. A. for the same reason.

The Medical Side of Benjamin Franklin (W. Pi oper), Univ. of Pcnn. Med. Bull., Phila., 1910, vol. xxiii.

Benjamin Franklin from the Medical View- it (C. G. Cumston), N. Y. Med. Jour., ! in. 2. Oeuvrea oompli tee (P. J. G. CabanU). Paris,

, vol. V.

The Story of a Famous Book (Franklin's