218 
Benjamin  Franklin. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1906. 
ing  a  preparation  of  the  body  for  the  small  pox.  And  the  manner 
of  receiving  the  infection,"  by  Dr.  John  Kearsley,  1 75 1 . 
"  Medicinae  Britannica."  "  To  which  Mr.  John  Bartram  has  added 
a  preface,  notes,  and  an  appendix  containing  a  description  of  a 
number  of  plants  peculiar  to  America,  their  uses,  virtues,  etc."; 
also  printed  in  175 1. 
Throughout  his  long  and  varied  career  Benjamin  Franklin  appears 
to  have  had  a  predilection  for  the  friendship  of  medical  men.  In 
addition  to  the  brothers  Thomas  and  Phineas  Bond,  Benjamin 
Franklin  probably  counted  as  friend  or  correspondent  every  promi- 
nent medical  man  in  the  British  Colonies.  In  Great  Britain  itself 
Franklin's  friends  were  numerous  and  influential.  He  was  on  inti- 
mate terms  with  such  prominent  men  as  John  Fothergill,  Sir  William 
Watson,  Sir  John  Pringle,  William  Heberdeen,  William  Hewson, 
Thomas  Percival,  William  Cullen  and  Joseph  Black.  In  France  and 
on  the  Continent  of  Europe  Franklin  was  known  to,  if  not  by,  every 
prominent  medical  man  who  was  in  any  way  interested  in  the 
progress  of  the  general  sciences. 
Through  this  wide  and  varied  acquaintance  with  medical  men  of 
all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  Franklin  was  able  to,  and  did,  assist 
a  number  of  American  students  of  medicine  who  had  gone  to 
Europe  to  complete  their  medical  education.  Not  the  least  note- 
worthy of  these  several  students  was  John  Morgan,  a  son  of  Evan 
Morgan,  a  merchant  of  Welsh  descent,  who  had  been  a  friend  and 
neighbor  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  had  also  been  associated  with 
him  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Hospital. 
John  Morgan,  after  serving  as  an  apprentice  in  the  office  of  Dr. 
John  Redman,  was  appointed  and  served  one  year  as  the  second 
apothecary  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital ;  Morgan  subsequently 
went  to  Europe,  where,  largely  through  the  kindly  assistance  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  who  was  then  residing  in  Europe  as  the  agent 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Colony,  he  was  brought  in  contact  with  and 
permitted  to  study  under  the  leading  men  of  the  medical  profession 
in  London,  and  later  in  Edinburgh.  It  was  no  doubt  due  to  his 
associations  in  the  latter  city  that  Morgan  was  led  to  conceive  the 
idea  of  forming  a  medical  school  in  connection  with  the  College  of 
Philadelphia,  and  at  the  same  time  to  attempt  to  introduce  the  then 
novel  practice  of  writing  prescriptions  and  of  having  them  com- 
pounded and  dispensed  by  a  regularly  educated  apothecary. 
