Professor Stanley Finger of Washington University writes in his latest book Doctor’s Franklin Medicine about the Medical Legacy Benjamin Franklin who has been a great scientist, inventor, publisher and statesman.
Franklin though not having any formal medical education has contributed a lot to preventive and modern medicine.Franklin started practicing medicine in America during the 18th Century in a period where there were colonial healers with little formal medical training. Franklin was different from other colonials as he practiced medicine with clinical medicine with the mindset of an experimental natural philosopher and with the help of printing press and social connections he build the first major charity hospital and the first American Medical School.
Some of the important contributions of Franklin to the society were that he was the first person to start a charity hospital and medical school and was the one who started the small pox inoculation which saved against spread of small pox virus. He founded that common cold was the cause of spread of microorganisms from infected persons. He invented the bifocal lens and flexible urinary catheter.
Source: Eurekalert.
