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C H A P T E R 4 The Citizen and the Hospital This Building by the Bounty of the Government, and of many Private Persons, was Piously Founded for the Relief of the Sick and Miserable. —Benjamin Franklin’s inscription for cornerstone of Pennsylvania Hospital, 1756 On February 10, 1752, American cultural and medical history was made in Philadelphia. That day, two patients, Margaret Sherlock and Hannah Shines, were admitted to the temporary building that would be used until construction could be completed on a recently approved new building for the city’s Pennsylvania Hospital. This institution would be the first major civilian hospital in the colonies for needy men and women. It would become a haven for physically sick or injured patients, Margaret Sherlock being the first such patient, and for the mentally ill, of which Hannah Shines was the first. Benjamin Franklin did not come up with the idea for the new hospital. That honor belongs to Philadelphia physician Thomas Bond. At the time, a major movement was under way in Europe to build hospitals for the sickpoor . Philanthropic citizens in England and Scotland were deeply involved in the movement, and they provided shining examples of what could be done for suffering humanity. Franklin, like Bond, was aware of what was happening abroad. To his credit, he recognized the importance of Bond’s floundering proposal and played the leading role in securing funding for the charitable project, thereby making it a reality. Before even starting on the hospital project, Franklin had immersed himself in a number of other institutional projects for the public good: his Junto, Library Company, and American Philosophical Society. These efforts, like his campaign for inoculation, stemmed from his philosophy to do good for his community and his drive to better himself. But in addition to citizenship and self-betterment, they brought him into contact with many talented and influential people. Some of these people became his friends, others provided him with information for his newspaper, and still others helped him to THE CITIZEN AND THE HOSPITAL 67 become more financially secure with lucrative printing contracts and civil service appointments. Of equal importance, some of his earlier institutions had clear ties to medicine, which helped him to appreciate how important a hospital could be for his adopted city. THE JUNTO When Franklin sailed home from London in 1726, he looked for a club to improve himself and life in general in Philadelphia. Not finding one, he founded a club a year later, basing it on Cotton Mather’s neighborhood benefit societies. But whereas Mather’s societies in New England had deep religious overtones, Franklin’s new club was decidedly secular. Franklin first called his small group the Leather Apron Club, since it was initially composed of twelve young artisans and tradesmen. It included a copier of deeds, a surveyor, a shoemaker, a mechanic, a clerk, and some friends from the printing trade. The group first met on Friday evenings at a local alehouse. Later the club became known as the Junto. “The rules I drew up,” Franklin tells us, “required that every member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics , or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss’d by the company; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president . . . without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory.”1 The Junto went over a list of “Proposals and Standing Queries” at every meeting, some of which pertained to health and medicine. In order to help maintain the health of the membership, the suggestion was made “That once a month in Spring, Summer and Fall the Junto meet of a Sunday in the Afternoon in some proper place cross the River for Bodily Exercise.”2 A greater number of the group’s queries, in contrast, were more involved with practical medicine than with personal hygiene and prevention. One read: “Have you or any of your acquaintance been lately sick or wounded? If so, what remedies were used, and what were their effects?”3 Another raised a deep moral question: “Is it justifiable to put private Men to Death for the Sake of publick Safety or Tranquility, who have committed no Crime? As in the Case of the Plague to stop Infection.”4 With questions such as these, it is easy to understand why Franklin called his Junto...

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