Franklin Bache

Franklin Bache ( – ) was an American medical doctor, chemist, professor and writer from Pennsylvania. He taught chemistry at West Point Academy, the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Jefferson Medical College. He published several scientific textbooks including a pharmacopoeia with Dr. George Bacon Wood in 1830 that became the basis of the U.S. Pharmacopoeia and U.S. Dispensatory. He was the first American to perform original research on the study of acupuncture for pain treatment.

He was the son of Benjamin Franklin Bache and great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin.

Early life and education Bache was born on in Philadelphia to Benjamin Franklin Bache and Margaret Hartman Markoe. He was the great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1810 and began to study medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush. He left medical school in 1813 and entered the United States Army as a surgeons mate in an infantry division during the War of 1812. He returned to school after the war and received his medical diploma from the University of Pennsylvania in 1814. He resigned from the Army in 1816 and began the practice of medicine in Philadelphia. In 1821, he published the first American version of the Dictionary of Chemistry. In 1822, he succeeded Gerard Troost as professor of chemistry at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and became the chair of materia medica from 1831 to 1841. He was physician to the Walnut Street Prison from 1826 to 1832, professor of chemistry at the Franklin Institute from 1829 to 1836 and physician to the Eastern State Penitentiary. He served as professor of chemistry at Jefferson Medical College from 1841 until his death.

In 1819 he published a System of Chemistry for the Use of Students of Medicine. Along with Dr. George B. Wood, he prepared a pharmacopoeia in 1830 that was adopted by a national convention of physicians, and became the basis of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia and U. S. Dispensatory. He continued to refine and publish new versions of the pharmacopeia with Dr. Wood, from 1833 until his death. He published a Supplement to Henry's Chemistry (1823); Letters on Separate Confinement of Prisoners (1829-'30); and Introductory Lectures on Chemistry (1841-'52). He partnered with Dr. Robert Hare and edited the American version of Andrew Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry.

He was elected a member of the Franklin Institute in 1827. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1820 and served as president from 1854 to 1855. He served as vice-president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia A memoir of him was published and presented to the American Philosophical Society by Dr. George B. Wood in 1865.

Publications A System of Chemistry for the Use of Students of Medicine, William Fry, Philadelphia, 1819 A Dictionary of Chemistry, on the Basis of Mr. Nicholson's; in which the Principles of the Science are Investigated Anew, and its Applications to the Phenomena of Nature, Medicine, Mineralogy, Agriculture, and Manufactures, Detailed, Robert Desilver, Philadelphia, 1821 Observations and Reflections on the Penitentiary System. A Letter from Franklin Bache, M.D. to Roberts Vaux, Jasper Harding, Philadelphia, 1829 Elements of Chemistry, Including the Recent Discoveries and Doctrines of the Science, John Grigg, Philadelphia, 1830 The Dispensatory of the United States of America, Grigg & Elliot, Philadelphia, 1839 An Obituary Notice of Thomas T. Hewson, M.D., Late President of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, W.F. Geddes, Philadelphia, 1850 Valedictory Address to the Graduates of Jefferson Medical College. Delivered at the Public Commencement, held March 15, 1859, Joseph M. Wilson, Philadelphia, 1859