Am.  Jour.  Pharru. 
May.  1906. 
Benjamin  Franklin. 
215 
It  will  not  be  necessary  for  me,  however,  to  recount  to  you  the 
various  incidents  in  the  career  of  this  noted  Americ  an,  nor  to  call 
to  your  attention  the  numerous  and  the  varied  achievements  that 
have  had  such  an  evident  and  such  a  lasting  influence  on  the  gov- 
ernment, the  industries  and  the  arts  of  this  country,  as  these  are 
matters  of  general  knowledge  and  are,  or  at  least  should  be,  familiar 
to  you  all. 
While  the  political,  philosophical,  literary,  mechanical  and  phil- 
anthropic achievements  of  Benjamin  Franklin  have  been  generally 
recognized,  it  does  not  appear  to  be  so  commonly  known  that  this 
same  Benjamin  Franklin  probably  had  a  more  direct  and  a  more 
lasting  influence  on  the  progress  of  the  science  of  medicine,  in  these 
United  States,  than  any  one  other  individual ;  certainly  more  than 
any  one  other  layman. 
In  the  course  of  my  remarks  I  shall  endeavor  to  recall  to  your 
minds  at  least  some  of  these  varied  influences  and  to  indicate  how 
far-reaching  have  been  the  ultimate  results. 
Being  ourselves  primarily  interested  in  the  practice  of  pharmacy 
we  may  naturally  ask  what  influences,  if  any,  can  Benjamin  Franklin 
have  exerted  on  the  evolution  of  an  art  that  was  practically  unknown 
in  this  country,  in  his  time. 
Apart  from  the  fact  that  he  himself  contributed  materially  to 
introduce  the  practice  of  pharmacy  into  America,  his  influence,  indi- 
rect though  it  be,  on  the  origin  and  development  of  pharmaceutical 
education  is  probably  most  interesting. 
All  of  you  know  how  directly  our  present  system  of  pharmaceut- 
ical education  is  dependent  on  the  system  of  teaching  introduced  by 
the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  some  eighty-five  years  ago; 
but  do  you  also  appreciate  that  the  direct  incentive  for  organizing 
this  College  of  Pharmacy  was  given  by  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia,  founded 
by  Franklin  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  ? 
The  founding  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  was,  however,  but 
one  of  a  series  of  important  occurrences  that  have  contributed 
materially  to  enhance  and  to  enlarge  the  sum  total  of  medical 
knowledge. 
Five  years  before  the  founding  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  was 
actually  accomplished,  Benjamin  Franklin  had  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing, in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  a  society  "  for  promoting  useful 
