Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CCCCXCI: TO M. DUBOURG - The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775

Return to Title Page for The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory

CCCCXCI: TO M. DUBOURG - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. VI (Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


CCCCXCI

TO M. DUBOURG

10 March, 1773.

I shall not attempt to explain why damp clothes occasion colds, rather than wet ones, because I doubt the fact; I imagine that neither the one nor the other contribute to this effect, and that the causes of colds are totally independent of wet and even of cold. I propose writing a short paper on this subject, the first moment of leisure I have at my disposal. In the meantime I can only say that, having some suspicions that the common notion which, attributes cold to the property of stopping the pores and obstructing perspiration, was ill founded, I engaged a young physician, who is making some experiments with Sanctorius’ balance, to estimate the different proportions of his perspirations, when remaining one hour quite naked, and another warmly clothed. He pursued the experiment in this alternate manner for eight hours successively, and found his perspiration almost doubled during those hours in which he was naked.

B. Franklin.