The medical side of Benjamin Franklin / by William Pepper.

  • William Pepper
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical side of Benjamin Franklin / by William Pepper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    107/202 page 63
    London, June 22, 1773. To Jean Baptiste Le Roy.1 . ..Iam pleas’d to hear you are engag’d in the Consideration of Hospitals. I wish any Observations of mine could be of Use to you, they should be at your Service. But ’tis a Subject I am very little acquainted with. I can only say, that, if a free and copious Perspiration is of Use in Diseases, that seems, from the Experiments I mention’d to M. Dubourg to be best obtained by light covering and fresh Air continually changing. The Moisture on the Skin when the Body is warmly covered, being a Deception, and the Effect not of greater Transpiration, but of the Saturation of the Air included under and in the Bedclothes, which there¬ fore can absorb no more, and so leaves it on the surface of the Body. From those Experiments I am convinc’d of what I indeed before sus¬ pected, that the Opinion of Perspiration being check’d by Cold is an Error, as well as that of Rheum being occasion’d by Cold. But as this is Heresy here, and perhaps may be so with you, I only whisper it, and expect you will keep my Secret. Our Physicians have begun to discover that fresh Air is good for People in the Small-Pox and other Fevers. I hope in time they will find out that it does no harm to People in Health. We have nothing new here in the philosophic Way. I shall like to hear how M. Lavoisier’s Doctrine supports itself as I suppose it will be controverted. With the greatest Esteem, I am ever, Dear Sir, Yours most affectionately, B. Franklin. London, June 29, 1773 To Barbeu Dubourg. Dear Friend, . . . I have not time to write what I intend upon the‘Cause of Colds, or Rheums, and my opinion on that Head are so singular here that I am almost afraid to hazard them abroad. In the mean time, be so kind as to tell me at your leisure, whether in France, you have a general Belief that moist Air, and cold Air, and damp Shirts or Sheets, and wet 1 Jean Baptiste LeRoy, 1724-1800. A natural philosopher, born in Paris. Mem¬ ber of the Academie des Sciences, of the Royal Society, and of the American Philo¬ sophical Society. He wrote several works on electricity.
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image