This work was Banjamin Franklin's personal favorite of the works printed by him, and is one of the finest books to emanate from a Colonial American press. It was the first classical text printed in North America, and the translation was by Franklin's friend James Logan. The work's genesis was in in the winter of 1741-2, when a trial sheet was sent to Logan, but more pressing printing work (in particular, the many religious pamphlets of 1743-4) obtruded. With the arrival from London of David Hall, Franklin had leisure to complete the book, which went on sale in mid-March, 1744. It contains an introduction by Franklin entitled, "The printer to the reader." Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Franklin was a prime mover in establishing the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first permanent hospital built in the future United States. This publication included the text of most of the founding documents of the hospital, a donation form for contributions, and a subscriber list.

Franklin’s statistical account of smallpox inoculation in Boston during the epidemic of 1753-54, showing the beneficial effects of the practice, was written for William Heberden, who contributed the “Plain instructions” mentioned on the title. Early in his life Franklin had actively opposed inoculation but he became one of its strongest advocates after the tragic death of his son from smallpox in 1736.

Written in Franklin's absence, this continuation was printed in the same style and format as Franklin's 1761 work. Rhoads was an American architect who served as the 59th mayor of Philadelphia.

Responding to Mesmer’s growing notoriety, the Medical Faculty of Paris became alarmed, and urged the King to appoint a blue-ribbon committee of inquiry. The committee included Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Michael Joseph Majault, Jean Sylvain Bailly, Jean d'Arcet. Finding no evidence of a magnetic fluid, these scientists attributed the power of mesmerism to the “imagination” and so drove Mesmer from Paris. Lavoisier may have been the author of the report. English translation, London, 1785. Digital facsimile of the 1784 edition from BnFgallica at this link.

"The Autobiography remained unpublished during Franklin's lifetime. In 1791, the first edition appeared, in French rather than English, as Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin, published in Paris. This translation of Part One only was based on a flawed transcript made of Franklin's manuscript before he had revised it. This French translation was then retranslated into English in two London publications of 1793, and one of the London editions served as a basis for a retranslation into French in 1798 in an edition which also included a fragment of Part Two.

"The first three parts of the Autobiography were first published together (in English) by Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, in London in 1818, in Volume 1 of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin. W. T. Franklin did not include Part Four because he had previously traded away the original hand-written holograph of the Autobiography for a copy that contained only the first three parts. Furthermore, he felt free to make unauthoritative stylistic revisions to his grandfather's autobiography, and on occasion followed the translated and retranslated versions mentioned above rather than Ben Franklin's original text.

"W. T. Franklin's text was the standard version of the Autobiography for half a century, until John Bigelow purchased the original manuscript in France and in 1868 published the most reliable text that had yet appeared, including the first English publication of Part Four. In the 20th century, important editions by Max Ferrand and the staff of the Huntington Library in San Marino, California (Benjamin Franklin's Memoirs: Parallel Text Edition, 1949) and by Leonard W. Labaree (1964, as part of the Yale University Press edition of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin) improved on Bigelow's accuracy. In 1981, J. A. Leo Lemay and P.M. Zall produced The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text, attempting to show all revisions and cancellations in the holograph manuscript. This, the most accurate edition of all so far published, served as a basis for Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: A Norton Critical Edition and for the text of this autobiography printed in the Library of America's edition of Franklin's Writings.

"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin also became the first full-length audiobook in history, which was voiced by actor Michael Rye and released in 1969.^[3

(Wikipedia article on The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, accessed 5-2020).

Digital facsimile of the first edition from Google Books at this link.

The history of medicine, and Franklin's involvements in it, within the context of his life and career.