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.

    62/202 page 40
    CHAPTER III 1761-1769 A number of Franklin’s letters to Miss Stevenson1 contain pertinent allusions to medicine, among them the example here copied: Craven St., Aug. 10, 1761. Dear Polly: . . . I have a singular Opinion on this subject, which I will venture to communicate to you, tho’ I doubt you will rank it among my Whims. It is certain that the Skin has imbibing as well as discharging pores, witness the Effect of a Blister Plaister, etc. I have read, that a Man, hired by a physician to stand by way of Experiment in the open Air naked during a moist Night, weighed near 3 Pounds heavier in the Morning. I have often observed myself, that however thirsty I may have been going into the Water to swim, I am never so in the Water. These imbibing Pores, however, are very fine, perhaps fine enough in filtring to separate Salt from Water, for, tho’ I have soak’d by Swimming, when a Boy, several Hours in the Day for several Days successively in Salt water, I never found my Blood and Juices salted by that means, so as to make me thirsty or feel a salt Taste in my Mouth; and it is re¬ markable, that the Flesh of the Sea Fish, tho’ bred in Salt Water, is not Salt. Hence I imagine, that, if People at sea, distress’d by Thirst when their fresh Water is unfortunately spent, would make Bathing Tubs of their empty Water-Casks, and, filling them with Sea Water, sit in them an hour or two each Day, they might be greatly reliev’d. Perhaps keeping their Clothes constantly wet might have an almost equal Effect, and this 1 Mrs. Margaret Stevenson kept a boarding house at No. 7 Craven St., London, and here Benjamin Franklin lived during the fifteen years of his stay in London. Her daughter, Mary Stevenson, was a great friend of Benjamin Franklin’s and to her he wrote many of his most interesting and delightful letters. Miss Stevenson married Dr. Wm. Hewson, and after her husband’s death, at Dr. Franklin’s sugges¬ tion, she removed with her children to Philadelphia.
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image