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knowledge in the minds of the students. Among others, with whom Mr. Franklin was here contemporary, we may mention the late Sir James Mackintosh, at that time pursuing the study of medicine, and also the present eminent Sir Henry Halford.

After going through, with great credit to himself, the regular routine of study at Edinburgh, Mr. Franklin returned to London, and entered himself as a pupil at Guy's Hospital, under Dr. Saunders. He was also, at the same time, a pupil at the London Hospital, under Sir William Blizard. With Dr. Saunders he ever remained on terms of the most friendly intimacy; as also with Sir Walter Farquhar, and many other eminent medical men, with whom he had the good fortune to associate in London. We must not omit to state that, during the whole of this period, his pecuniary resources arose principally from his uncle, Mr. Madox; and it is but justice, at the same time, to mention that every farthing of money so advanced was afterwards, when Mr. Franklin began to reap the fruits of his professional labours, most scrupulously repaid as a debt. He may justly, therefore, be said to have provided his own education; and throughout the whole career of his attendance at the hospitals and lectures, by his honourable conduct, as well as by the talents which he displayed in his profession, he advanced himself very swiftly on the road to distinction. He was particularly noticed by the celebrated John Hunter, at that time head of the medical department of the army. Mr. Hunter, in conjunction with Dr. Saunders, his first friend and patron, procured for him, upon due qualification, a commission to serve in the army.

Thus starting in life, with good friends entirely of his own procuring, and full of zeal for the service upon which he was entering, Mr. Franklin, in the year 1787, joined the 43d regiment of foot as assistant-surgeon. With this regiment he proceeded to the West Indies, under the command of Sir Charles Grey, the father of the present Earl Grey. In the West Indies, visiting from time to time nearly every one of

the islands in turn of duty, Mr. Franklin laid up a considerable store of professional experience. He remained there upwards of eight years, and saw every malignity of disease raging with the greatest severity. With the danger and arduous character of this service there came also the corresponding reward in a remarkably quick promotion. By the fatal nature of the climate, surgeons as well as their patients were continually falling under the unsparing hand of death. Owing to this circumstance, as well as, at the same time, to one of those fortuitous events which occur in all professions more or less, but particularly in the profession of physic, Mr. Franklin very rapidly rose in his career. There happened to be, in one of the islands, a peculiar case of disease in an individual of high rank, within the sphere of Mr. Franklin's duty: the attendant medical gentlemen were pursuing a course of treat'ment which was accompanied with very little success. Mr. Franklin, though much junior to the other medical officers, ventured to suggest an entirely different mode; and, even against the advice of his superiors, he maintained the correctness of his own opinion. After some delay, his recommendation was followed; and the patient recovered. This event naturally attracted the attention of the commanding officers, and particularly of Sir Charles Grey; and, very shortly afterwards, Mr. Franklin commenced that advancement in rank which his superior skill so justly merited. In 1790 he was promoted to the surgeoncy of the 15th foot. In 1794 he was appointed Apothecary to the Forces; in 1795, Physician to the Forces, and in 1796, Assistant-Inspector of Hospitals. This was a rapidity of promotion seldom witnessed in the medical department of the army.

Shortly after this last promotion Mr. Franklin was recalled to his native country, but he was not long destined to remain inactive. Towards the close of the eighteenth century the arms of Great Britain were occupied in almost every quarter of the world. Among other expeditions, the Duke of York, then at the head of our army, was actively engaged in

Holland. In such a period it was not likely that any zealous or useful officer should be suffered to remain in idleness. No sooner therefore did Mr. Franklin arrive in England than his services were again demanded. He was despatched to the army under the Duke of York, and was particularly engaged in the expedition to the Helder Point under Sir Ralph Abercromby. Upon the failure of this expedition in the year 1799 Mr. Franklin once more returned home, having gained the esteem and commendation of the Duke of York, who ever afterwards appreciated most highly his services on this occasion.

Now that a little respite was allowed from the more active duties of his profession, Mr. Franklin repaired to Edinburgh, and proceeded to his degree of M.D. He was also elected a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in that University, and an honorary Member of the College of Surgeons.

But these peaceful honours were not sufficient to detain him from his more laborious duties in the service of his country. In the year 1802 he was ordered to the Mediterranean, to take the command of the medical staff on that station. On this occasion he was promoted to the rank of Inspector of Hospitals: he remained at the head of the medical department in Malta and Sicily till the year 1810; during which time, as he had before witnessed the diseases peculiar to the tropical climates, he here had occasion to observe those intermediate diseases between the extremes of heat and cold. Nor was he, by any means, disengaged from the more personal dangers and labours of war. In 1806 Sir John Stuart was in the command of the British forces on the Sicilian station. With the very small force which Sir John commanded he could not hope to perform any very important service; but upon receiving information of the march of Regnier to the vicinity of Maida, Sir John Stuart, with 4800 men, hastened to meet the French general. Regnier had taken up a position of such natural strength, that at first it was impossible for the British troops to make any impression.

Regnier, however, trusting to the operations of his cavalry, quitted his defensible station, crossed the Amato, and disposed his troops for action. Upon the first charge of the bayonet the French gave way, sought safety in flight, and the British, with very little loss of life, remained masters of the field of Maida.

In this engagement Dr. Franklin was professionally and actively engaged; and it was an action of considerable importance, as it demonstrated the fallacy of the frequent declarations of the French, who, while they acknowledged the naval superiority of Great Britain, yet scornfully undervalued the merit of her soldiers.

The opinion of French invincibility was thus shaken; and the way was prepared for those more glorious victories which shortly followed in the Peninsula. For his distinguished services on this occasion, being noticed by Sir John Stuart as actively engaged in the very heat of the battle, Dr. Franklin obtained a medal.

In the year 1810, by the retirement of Dr. Theodore Gordon (one of Dr. Franklin's oldest and most intimate friends) from the Medical Board in London, a place of dignity and emolument at the head of the profession was thrown open. Upon the occurrence of this vacancy great interest was used, as might naturally be expected, by all those individuals who were immediately upon the spot, to obtain so desirable a promotion. Dr. Franklin was at a distance, at the head of the medical staff in Sicily. He never, in any way, made application for the appointment; yet, so high did his name stand at head-quarters, that Sir David Dundas, who had succeeded the Duke of York as commander-inchief, overlooking all the numerous personal applications that had been made, at once recommended to his Majesty the name of Dr. Franklin. When this apppointment was communicated to him in a complimentary letter from the Adjutant-General he was ordered to repair to London. Here, however, a fresh instance of zeal and activity in the service of his

country must not be passed over: instead of proceeding direct to head-quarters, Dr. Franklin took Cadiz in his way. At that moment the British army, under Lord Lynedoch, had joined the Spaniards before Cadiz, had given battle to the French, routed them, and thereby effectually cleared that part of the Peninsula. Sir James Fellows, a very able medical officer, was under the command of Lord Lynedoch, as inspector of hospitals. Dr. Franklin's object was to visit this army in the field, as well as minutely to inspect all the hospitals, and to investigate the causes of certain diseases which prevailed, and, in fact, to enlarge that mass of information which he had already collected in the West India Islands, Holland, and the Mediterranean; and thus to come more fully prepared for the general superintendence of the health and medical treatment of the British army, to which he had been called by the command of his sovereign. At the period in which Dr. Franklin first joined his colleagues in London, the duties of the Medical Board were more enlarged and more arduous than at any former period. An active and severe war upon the Continent demanded a corresponding activity in the arrangements of all those departments whose province it was to furnish the matériel of warfare. It is needless to say that, of all that matériel, the health and vigour of the soldier is by far the most important. This had been felt severely in many of our latter campaigns, but more especially in those expeditions to Holland in which Dr. Franklin himself had been engaged. The musket and the sword destroy not so many men as the diseases arising from unhealthy situations, from ill-regulated hospitals, and from want of ready and able medical assistance. It was resolved, therefore, to pay more strict and vigilant attention to the domestic comforts and health of the soldier than had hitherto been the custom. With this view, immediately that Dr. Franklin took his seat at the Board, he communicated the mass of information which he had gleaned in the various services in which he had been engaged to his colleagues, Sir

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