Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and in Health

2. Benjamin Franklin: A Founding Father of American Medicine

« 79 » 2 Benjamin Franklin A Founding Father of American Medicine [Exercise] is of the greatest importance to prevent disease, since the cure of them by physic is so precarious. —Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, August 19, 1772 Merging Medical Science, Philanthropy, and Civic Leadership Benjamin Franklin has become an iconic figure in American history as a highly versatile and visible revolutionary leader and statesman, skillful diplomat, sage writer, successful businessman, and innovative scientist, but few today realize that this multidimensional Renaissance man was also a pivotal player in the development of medicine in early America. An avid student of the Enlightenment, Franklin focused his prodigious intellect on the use of reason to advance progress for the benefit of civilization . Scientific curiosity that emphasized observation and experimentation , coupled with pragmatic benevolence, drove Franklin’s work on disease prevention, health care, and the broader subject of medicine, one of his chief interests. Franklin embodied a pioneering scientific approach to medicine in America, which was complemented by his roles as a civic leader and philanthropist, as well as his successful career as a printer and publisher.ThatuniquecombinationenabledFranklinnotonlytodevelop his own medical theories and conduct scientific medical experiments but alsotodisseminatemedicalinformationtoawideAmericanaudience. If Franklin professed a religious credo, it was one that focused on good works as the essence of religiosity. As he wrote to a friend in 80 « Benjamin Franklin 1753, “I mean real good Works, Works of Kindness, Charity, Mercy, and Publick Spirit.”1 Early on, Franklin arrived at the firm conviction that government, whether municipal, state, or, eventually, federal, had a pivotal role to play alongside concerned individual citizens in promoting health and reducing sickness and disease, a commitment he shared with all the founders in this study. Indeed, the founding of the Pennsylvania Hospital, in which Franklin played so key a creative and fundraising role, was financed by a combination of government funds from the colonial legislature and private contributions. The hospital has been lauded as “a testimony to both the charity of the citizens and PortraitofBenjaminFranklin.(CourtesyU.S.NationalLibraryofMedicine) A Founding Father of American Medicine » 81 the professional aspirations of the profession.” It certainly advanced the practice of medicine by allowing medical students to witness and participate in actual everyday hospital activities, while at the same time aiding the sick, particularly those with little means.2 Moreover, hospitals provided the “opening wedge” for national government involvement in the public health arena.3 When Franklin decided to retire from active business at the age of forty-two to concentrate on intellectual and charitable undertakings, his mother, Abiah Folger Franklin, expressed her disapproval. Franklin famously informed her in 1750, “I would rather have it said, he lived usefully , than, He died rich.”4 The quintessential civic leader, in 1727 at the age of only twenty-one, he established a Philadelphia club for “mutual improvement” known as the Junto, which was organized to share knowledge and promote good citizenship and communal responsibility . As the leader of the Junto, Franklin would go on to play a central role in establishing a local public subscription library, a fire company, a voluntary militia, a postal service, and the learned American Philosophical Society for scientific inquiry. In 1751, Franklin was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, ushering in almost forty years of service as a public official. Perhaps most importantly, as noted, Franklin was the moving force behind the founding of the voluntary public charitable hospital in 1752, as well as the Philadelphia college academy (which became the University of Pennsylvania) and helped establish America’s first medical school there in 1765. As a disciple of the Enlightenment, Franklin venerated abstract knowledge, science, and discovery for its own sake and to satisfy his curious mind. Indeed, one author has designated him “the first scientific American.”5 Franklin faithfully adhered to the principles of emerging scientific method laid down by Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, which emphasized objective experimentation, observation, and careful and accurate documentation of results. Stanley Finger, one of the few biographers to concentrate on Franklin’s role in medicine, noted that what distinguished him from most other medical “practitioners” of his era was his “scientific approach to medicine from early on until his dying day.”6 Franklin’s scientific interests were wide and far reaching. In terms of disease, he explored not only prevention and cure but also how the body functioned, including respiration, perspiration, and blood circulation, 82 « Benjamin Franklin subjects he discussed quite knowledgeably...