Franklin in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

Benjamin Rush, [The Wisdom and Experience of Mellow Old Age, 1785–1789, 1805, 1806]

[101] [The Wisdom and Experience of Mellow Old Age, 1785–1789, 1805, 1806] Benjamin Rush Born in rural Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia, Benjamin Rush (1746–1813) traveled to Edinburgh to study medicine in the 1760s. During his time in Great Britain, he became acquainted with Franklin and even dedicated to him his medical dissertation, De coctione ciborum in ventriculo (Wolf and Hayes, no. 2964). In the late 1760s Rush returned to Philadelphia, where he established a thriving medical practice and ultimately became one of the most well-respected American physicians of the eighteenth century. He also became active in Revolutionary politics. In the summer of 1776, he and Franklin briefly served together in the Continental Congress; both were signers of the Declaration of Independence. When Franklin returned from Paris in 1785, Rush tried to spend as much time with him as he could. Regardless of his distinguished medical career, Rush understood that he still had much to learn from Franklin, even when it came to the subject of medicine. Rush frequently dined with him, listening attentively to what he said and recording their conversations in his diary and occasionally his correspondence. Rush appreciated Franklin’s humorous anecdotes and general wisdom. In his discussions with Rush and others, Franklin drew on a lifetime of experience. Active in the anti-slavery movement, he was elected president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. As he and Rush discussed the issue of abolition, Franklin recalled a book he had published in 1737, nearly a half century earlier, Benjamin Lay’s All Slave-Keepers That Keep the Innocent in Bondage (Miller, no. 134). Always one to shape his anecdotes to suit both audience and situation, Franklin also related many tidbits of medical knowledge he had gleaned from personal experience in his talks with Rush, who wrote some of them down in his notes and his correspondence. Other anecdotes he noted briefly but developed later as part of either Medical Inquiries and Observations (1794–1798; second ed., 1805) or Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical (1798; 2d ed., 1806). franklin in his own time [102] Conversations with Dr. Franklin 1785.—Dined with the Dr. with Dr. [David] Ramsay, Mr. [David] Rittenhouse , Mr. Littlepage, ‘Littlepage’s Salutation,’ etc. He [Franklin] said the foundation of the American revolution was laid in 1733, by a clause in a bill to subject the Colonies to being gov’d by Royal instructions which was rejected. He said in 1756, when he went to England, he had a long conversation with Mr. [Charles] Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden) who told him that Britain would drive the colonies to independance. This he said first led him to realise its occurring shortly. 1786 Augt.—I waited on the Dr. with a Dr. [Walter] Minto. He said he believed that Tobacco would in a few years go out of use. That, about 30 years ago, when he went to England, Smoaking was universal in taverns, coffe-houses, and private families, but that it was now generally laid aside, that the use of Snuff, from being universal in France, was become unfashionable among genteel people, no person of fashion under 30 years of age now snuffed in France. He added that, Sir John Pringle and he had observed that tremors of the hands were more frequent in France than elsewhere , and probably from the excessive use of Snuff. They once saw in a company of 16 but two persons who had not these tremors at a table in France. He said Sir John was cured of a tremor by leaving off Snuff. He concluded that there was no great advantage in using Tobacco in any way, for that he had kept company with persons who used it all his life, and no one had ever advised him to use it. The Dr. in the 81st year of his age declared he had never snuffed, chewed, or smoked. Septem’r 23rd.—Three persons who don’t care how little they get for their money, waited upon the Dr. with Mr Bee. He [Franklin] said he believed the Accts. of the plague in Turkey were exaggerated. He once conversed with a Dr. MacKensie who had resided 38 years at Constantinople , who told him there were five plagues in that town. The plague of the drugger-men or interpreters, who spread false stories of the prevalence of the plague in Order to drive foreign ministers into the country, in order that they might enjoy...