Am.  Jour.  Pharru. 
May,  1906. 
Benjamin  Franklin. 
221 
pox  as  practiced  in  Boston  about  1753  or  54.  In  this  account  he 
mentions  the  great  disparity  in  the  mortality  of  those  who  took  the 
smallpox  in  the  common  way  and  those  who  received  the  distemper 
by  inoculation,  despite  the  fact  that  the  deaths  of  those  inoculated 
had  been  distinctly  more  numerous  in  proportion  at  this  time  than 
had  formerly  been  observed. 
The  practice  of  inoculation  served  to  prepare  the  way  for  Jennets 
discovery  of  the  relationship  existing  between  cowpox  and  small- 
pox and  the  accompanying  practice  of  vaccination  which  has  so 
effectually  reduced  the  frequency  as  well  as  the  dread  of  this  one- 
time fearful  scourge. 
One  other  contribution  of  Franklin  to  the  science  of  medicine 
should  be  mentioned  in  this  connection.  This  is  the  part  he 
took,  as  a  member  of  the  Royal  Commission  appointed  by  the 
King  of  France,  in  1784,  to  inquire  into  and  report  on  the  claims  of 
Mesmer  and  his  practice  of  Animal  Magnetism. 
This  commission  consisted  of  four  of  the  leading  physicians  of 
the  faculty  of  Paris,  and  five  members  of  the  Royal  Academy,  of 
which  Benjamin  Franklin  was  the  first  to  be  appointed. 
Mesmer  had  come  to  Paris  from  Vienna,  in  1778,  and  soon 
acquired  considerable  popularity.  The  resulting  frenzy  and  abuses 
finally  became  so  serious  that  the  Government  was  virtually  com- 
pelled to  interfere  and  the  above-mentioned  Royal  Commission  was 
instituted.  The  report  that  was  subsequently  issued  by  the  Govern- 
ment appears  to  have  been  a  humorous  one,  but  nevertheless  served 
to  give  the  peculiar  conglomerate  of  fraud  and  folly  such  a  destructive 
blow  that  during  the  lifetime  of  Mesmer,  at  least,  it  was  not  heard 
of  to  any  material  extent. 
Altogether  it  may  be  said  of  Benjamin  Franklin  that  in  matters 
medical,  as  in  matters  political  or  scientific,  he  was,  as  a  rule,  far 
ahead  of  his  contemporaries,  either  as  the  originator  of  ideas  and 
innovations,  the  disseminator  of  useful  knowledge,  or  the  promoter 
and  the  champion  of  practices  and  teachings  which  his  foresight 
and  experience  had  taught  him  to  be  useful  and  beneficial. 
In  conclusion  it  is  probably  not  too  presumptuous  to  assert  that 
with  the  passing  years  Franklin's  true  merit  and  worth  will  be  more 
duly  appreciated,  even  in  America,  and  he  will  eventually  be  given 
the  credit  of  being,  as  he  really  was,  one  of  the  foremost  men  of 
his  age. 
