Doctor Franklin's Medicine

by Finger, Stanley

• ISBN13: 9780812239133
• ISBN10: 081223913X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-11
• Publisher: Univ of Pennsylvania Pr

Summary

Selected byChoicemagazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Among his many accomplishments, Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in founding the first major civilian hospital and medical school and in the American colonies. He studied the efficacy of smallpox inoculation and investigated the causes of the common cold. His inventions--including bifocal lenses and a "long arm" that extended the user's reach--made life easier for the aged and afflicted. InDoctor Franklin's Medicine, Stanley Finger uncovers the instrumental role that this scientist, inventor, publisher, and statesman played in the development of the healing arts--enhancing preventive and bedside medicine, hospital care, and even personal hygiene in ways that changed the face of medical care in both America and Europe. As Finger shows, Franklin approached medicine in the spirit of the Enlightenment and with the mindset of an experimental natural philosopher, seeking cures for diseases and methods of alleviating symptoms of illnesses. He was one of the first people to try to use electrical shocks to help treat paralytic strokes and hysteria, and even suggested applying shocks to the head to treat depressive disorders. He also strove to topple one of the greatest fads in eighteenth-century medicine: mesmerism.Doctor Franklin's Medicinelooks at these and the many other contributions that Franklin made to the progress of medical knowledge, including a look at how Franklin approached his own chronic illnesses of painful gout and a large bladder stone. Written in accessible prose and filled with new information on the breadth of Franklin's interests and activities,Doctor Franklin's Medicinereveals the impressive medical legacy of this Founding Father.

Author Biography

Stanley Finger is Professor of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches in the programs of neural sciences and philosophy-neuroscience-psychology. He has written widely on the history of medicine, and his many books include Origins of Neuroscience and Minds Behind the Brain. Finger is senior editor of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction: Benjamin Franklin's Enlightened Medicine	1	(18)
PART I. THE COLONIST AND MEDICINE
1. Poor Richard's Medicine	19	(18)
2. In Praise of Exercise	37	(12)
3. The Smallpox Wars	49	(17)
4. The Citizen and the Hospital	66	(14)
5. Electricity and the Palsies	80	(22)
6. Electricity, Mental Disorders, and a Modest Proposal	102	(15)
PART II. MEDICINE IN GREAT BRITAIN
7. Friends and Medical Connections	117	(16)
8. Scotland and the First American Medical School	133	(18)
9. Colds, the Weather, and the Invisible World	151	(14)
10. Fresh Air and Good Health	165	(16)
11. The Perils of Lead	181	(18)
PART III. LE DOCTEUR IN FRANCE
12. French Medicine and Health Imperatives	199	(20)
13. The Folly of Mesmerism	219	(16)
14. From Music Therapy to the Music of Madness	235	(18)
PART IV. OLD AGE, ILLNESSES, AND THE DOCTOR'S DEATH
15. Bifocals and the Aging Inventor	253	(14)
16. Skin and "Scurf"	267	(9)
17. The Gout as Your Friend?	276	(18)
18. A Debilitating Stone	294	(15)
19. The Limits of Medicine	309	(15)
Epilogue: Franklin's Medical Legacy	324	(7)
Notes	331	(34)
Index	365