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.

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    That he suffered occasionally from his enthusiasm for investigating various natural phenomena is here apparent. Probably he had an attack of malaria. Craven Street, April 10, 1774. To Joseph Priestley.1 2 . . . I have tried the experiment twice here in England, but without success. The first was in a slow running water with a muddy bottom. The second in a stagnant water at the bottom of a deep ditch. Being some time employed in stirring this water, I ascribed an intermitting fever, which seized me a few days later, to my breathing too much of that foul air, which I stirred up from the bottom, and which I could not avoid while I stooped, endeavoring to kindle it. The discoveries you have lately made, of the manner in which inflammable air is in some cases produced, may throw light on this experiment, and explain its succeeding in some cases, and not in others. With the highest esteem and respect, I am, dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant, B. Franklin. In the following brief paragraph Franklin tells his wife about Dr. William HewsonV illness. His prognosis in this case was wrong as Dr. Hewson died three days later of an infected dissection wound. 1 Joseph Priestley, 1733-1804. Eminent English philosopher, chemist and theo¬ logian. Franklin, who met him in London, encouraged him to write a “ History of Electricity.” Priestley dedicated his “Description of a New Chart of History” to Franklin. 2 William Hewson, 1739-1774. His wife, Mary Stevenson, was a great friend of Benjamin Franklin who lodged at her mother’s house. It is very likely that Miss Stevenson and Dr. Hewson met through their common friend, Benjamin Franklin. Dr. Hewson studied under William and John Hunter and became an anatomical demonstrator in their school, and later partner with William Hunter. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society largely on the recommendation of Dr. Franklin. Awarded the Copley Medal for his work on the lymphatic system in birds, amphib¬ ious animals and fishes. He later started a school of his own. He dedicated the second part of his Description of the Lymphatic System in the Human Subject to Benjamin Franklin. Franklin had a print of Dr. Hewson framed in his study. He died in his thirty-fifth year from septic fever, the result of a dissection wound His son, Dr. Thomas Tickell Hewson, was President of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
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