Doctor Franklins Medicine

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• Doctor Franklins Medicine
• The Electrical Cure
• Stanley Finger
• Washington University

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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

• Born in Boston, January 17, 1706
• Formal Schooling Ages 8-10
• Printers Apprentice, 1717
• Leaves for Philadelphia, 1723
• England 1757-1775
• France 1776-1785
• United States 1785-1790

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Franklins ReputationAccording to the USPS

• Printer-Writer
• Postmaster
• Statesman-Diplomat
• Scientist (Experimental Natural Philosopher)
• -----
• This list should include Man of Medicine!

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Franklin Stamps, 2006
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Medical Interests

• Hospitals
• Medical Schools
• Hygiene
• Exercise
• Fresh Air
• Smallpox Inoculation
• Lead Poisoning
• Malnutrition
• Child-rearing
• Mesmerism
• Music Therapy
• Prosthetics (e.g., bifocals, long-arm)
• Medical electricity

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Why Medicine?

• From Poor Richard's Almanack
• The noblest question in the world is, What
  
• Good may I do in it?
• "What is Serving God?
• 'Tis doing Good to Man."

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Some Landmarks in Electricity

• William Gilbert coins word, 1600
• Otto von Guerickes sulphur globe, 1660s
• Francis Hawksbees glass tubes, 1709
• Pieter van Musschenbroeks Leyden Jar, 1745

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Early Electrical Machine
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Leyden Jars
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Franklin on Electricity

• Spencers Electrical Demonstrations, 1743
• Collinsons Gift to Library Company, 1746(?)
• Theory of Points, 1747
• Plus-Minus Electricity Theory, 1747
• Lightning Rod, 1750
• Oneness of Lightning and Electricity, 1750-52
• Experiments and Observations on Electricity,
  1751

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Depictions of the Kite Experiment1752
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(No Transcript)
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• Electricity and the Palsies
• Trials with the Common
• Paralytic Disorder

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The First Call for Medical ElectricityJohann
Krüger of Halle, 1743

• "But what is the usefulness of electricity? For
  all things must have a usefulness that is
  certain. Since electricity must have a
  usefulness, and we have seen it cannot be looked
  for either in theology or in jurisprudence, there
  is obviously nothing is left but medicine. . .
  .The best effect would be found in paralyzed
  limbs."

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Medical Electricity Apparatus
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James Logan (1674-1751)

• Came to PA as William Penns secretary in 1699.
  
• Well known Pennsylvania businessman, public
  figure, book collector, and student of
  mathematics and natural philosophy.
• Common paralytick disorder in 1750.
• Franklin administered electrotherapy.
• It did not have beneficial effects.

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Jonathon Belcher (1682-1757)

• Governor of MA NH, then NJ.
• Common Paralytic Disorder, 1750, age 69.
• Asks my country man Franklin come and make the
  operation himself.
• Apparatus breaks in transit.
• I have however made some use of the rest of the
  apparatus and with Mr. Burrs assistance have
  been electrifyd several times but at present
  without any alternation in my nervous disorder.

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7 Craven St., London
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John Pringle
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Franklins 1757 Report to the Royal Society

• I never knew any Advantage from Electricity in
  Palsies that was permanent."

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Deborah Read Franklin (1708-1774)
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Franklin to Mather Byles, 1788

• "I wish for your sake that Electricity had
  really prov'd what at first it was suppos'd to
  be, a Cure for the Palsy.

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On Deafness(Caused by Smallpox)

• To Humphrey Stenhouse, 1765
• "I wish I could give you any Encouragement
• to hope Relief in your Case by means of
• Electricity. NO instance of the kind has
• fallen within my Knowledge. On the
• contrary, I have tryd it on some Patients,
• but without the least Success."

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A Tumor or Brain Abscess?

• Lady Mary Catherine was the 12-yr.-old
• daughter of the Duke of Ancaster. Pringle to
• Franklin in March 1767
• His Grace and the Duchess are in the greatest
  distress about
• their daughter, who has been long in a most
  Miserable condition
• with spasms and convulsions. After all that we
  have done the
• distemper remains obstinate the present spasm
  has shut the
• Young Lady's jaw and deprived Her both of speech
  and
• swallowing. I ventured to name You as the
  person the most
• proper for directing the operation.
• The girl died in April, just before her
  thirteenth birthday.

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• Poor Richard (1732)
• Hes the best physician that
• knows the worthlessness of the
• most medicines.
• Q. Did Franklin draw this conclusion about
  medical electricity?
• Ans. Not at all!

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Hysteria

• Just as a diseased body could affect the mind, a
  sick mind can wreck havoc with the body.
• John Wesley The slow and lasting passions,
  such as grief and hopeless love, bring on
  chronical diseases.

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Case C.B.

• Franklin and Cadwalader Evans team up
• to treat C.B. in 1752
• Probably Evans 24-year-old sister
• Hysterical symptoms for 10 years
• Case Published in 1757

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Evans on C.B.

• She was tortur'd almost to madness with a
  cramp in different parts of the body then with
  more general convulsions of the extremities, and
  a choaking deliquium and, at times with almost
  the whole train of hysteric symptoms.

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C.B. Letter

• "About this time there was a great talk of the
  wonderful power of electricity. Accordingly I
  went to Philadelphia, the beginning of September
  1752, and apply'd to B. Franklin, who I thought
  understood it best of any person here. 

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C.B. Letter

• I receiv'd four strokes morning and evening ...
  the symptoms gradually decreased, till at length
  they entirely left me. ... B. Franklin was so
  good as to supply me with a globe and bottle, to
  electrify myself everyday for three months. I
  now enjoy such a state of health, as I wou'd have
  given all the world for.  

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Why Did Franklin Think Electricity Worked?

• As an 18th-Century Physician
• Tightened flaccid nerves
• Increased the flow of the nerve juices
• Removed obstructions

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Why Did Franklin Think Electricity Worked?

• As A Psychologist
• As Charms are nonsense, Nonsense is a Charm.
• (Poor Richard, 1734)

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Why did Franklin Think Electricity Worked for
Hysteria?

• As an Empiricist
• Like most non-university trained amateurs
• in medicine, Franklin was not theory-driven.
• He took a trial and error approach and was
  concerned only with whether something worked.

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Melancholia

• Franklin does not suggest treating melancholia
  with electricity because it is a stimulant.
• It also had nothing to do with C.B.s related
  condition, hysteria.
• Instead, it stems from some electrical accidents.

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Franklin and Melancholia

• Franklin discovered that he and others could
  endure strong shocks to the head with only a
  small memory loss for the event.
• And his friend Jan Ingenhousz felt better after
  an electrical accident involving his head!

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Jan Ingenhousz (1730-1799)
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Ingenhouszs Joy

• My mental faculties were at that time not only
  returned, but I felt the most lively joye in
  finding, as I thought at the time, my judgment
  infinitely more acute. ... I found moreover a
  liveliness in my whole frame, which I never had
  observed before.

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Ingenhouszs Proposal

• "This experiment ... has induced me to advise
  some of the London mad-Doctors, as Dr Brook, to
  try a similar experiment on mad men, thinking
  that, as I found my self, my mental faculties
  improved and as the world well knows, that your
  mental faculties, if not improved by the two
  strooks you received, were certainly not hurt, by
  them, it might perhaps be? a remedie to restore
  the mental faculties when lost."

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Franklins Response

• "I communicated that Part of your Letter to an
  Operator, encourag'd by the Government here in
  Paris to electrify epileptic and other poor
  Patients, and advis'd his trying the Practice on
  Mad People according to your opinion.

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Word Spreads

• Within a few years of the Ingenhousz and
  Franklin proposals, people begin applying shocks
  to the heads of mad patients
• John Birch in London, 1787
• Giovanni Aldini in Bologna, 1801
• T. Gale, New York State, 1802

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Curing Melancholic Madness

• Birch, Aldini, and Gale
• Used weaker shocks and did not produce
  unconsciousness or major convulsions.
• But had significant successes.
• And never mentioned the origins of the new
  therapeutic idea!

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Dr. Franklins Reasoned Conclusions

• Medicine must be based on experiments, not
• unsubstantiated opinions or theories
• Generalizing without facts should be avoided.
• Thus, medicine should follow the rules set for
  Baconian
• And good Enlightenment science.
• Medical electricity is neither a panacea nor a
• quack remedy.
• This is shown by clinical Tryals for various
  disorders.