Stanley Finger is Professor of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches in the programs of neural sciences and philosophy-neuroscience-psychology. He has written widely on the history of medicine, and his many books include Origins of Neuroscience and Minds Behind the Brain. Finger is senior editor of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences.

• PrefaceIntroduction: Benjamin Franklin's Enlightened MedicinePART I. THE COLONIST AND MEDICINE1. Poor Richard's Medicine2. In Praise of Exercise3. The Smallpox Wars4. The Citizen and the Hospital5. Electricity and the Palsies6. Electricity, Mental Disorders, and a Modest ProposalPART II. MEDICINE IN GREAT BRITAIN7. Friends and Medical Connections8. Scotland and the First American Medical School9. Colds, the Weather, and the Invisible World10. Fresh Air and Good Health11. The Perils of LeadPART III. LE DOCTEUR IN FRANCE12. French Medicine and Health Imperatives13. The Folly of Mesmerism14. From Music Therapy to the Music of MadnessPART IV. OLD AGE, ILLNESSES, AND THE DOCTOR'S DEATH15. Bifocals and the Aging Inventor16. Skin and "Scurf "17. The Gout as Your Friend?18. A Debilitating Stone19. The Limits of MedicineEpilogue: Franklin's Medical LegacyNotesIndex

"Finger's accessible study of a truly inventive and international scientist, statesman and publicist includes some of its own novelties and should attract bothspecialist and nonspecialist readerships." (Social History of Medicine) "Eminent neuroscientist and medial historian Stanley Finger admirably lays out Franklin's association with the medical advances of his time. . . . As Finger conducts this fascinating tour of medical history, he enlivens the narrative with information that is often useful and always interesting. . . . A valuable and entertaining work." (American Scientist)