AS Printer and Philosopher 65 



a particular quality of the air), people often catch cold 

 from one another when shut up together in close rooms 

 and coaches, and when sitting near and conversing so as 

 to breathe in each other's transpiration; the disorder 

 being in a certain state." In the light of present knowl- 

 edge what a cautious and exact statement is that! 



There being no learned society in all America at the 

 time, Franklin's scientific experiments were almost all 

 recorded in letters written to interested friends; and he 

 was never in any haste to write these letters. He never 

 took a patent on any of his inventions, and made no effort 

 either to get a profit from them, or to establish any sort 

 of intellectual proprietorship in his experiments and 

 speculations. One of his English correspondents, Mr. 

 Collinson, published in 1751 a number of Franklin's let- 

 ters to him in a pamphlet called " New Experiments and 

 Observations in Electricity made at Philadelphia in 

 America." This pamphlet was translated into several 

 European languages, and established over the continent 

 — particularly in France — Franklin's reputation as a nat- 

 ural philosopher. A great variety of phenomena en- 

 gaged his attention, such as phosphorescence in sea water, 

 the cause of the saltness of the sea, the form and tem- 

 peratures of the Gulf Stream, the effect of oil in stilling 

 waves, and the cause of smoky chimneys. Franklin also 

 reflected and wrote on many topics which are now clas- 

 sified under the head of political economy, such as paper 



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