=Francis, John Wakefield.= _N. Y._, 1789-1861. A physician of much prominence at one time in medical and literary circles of New York city. Use of Mercury; Cases of Morbid Anatomy; Febrile Contagion; The Anatomy of Drunkenness; Old New York, a volume of pleasant reminiscences, comprise his principal writings. _See Life by Tuckerman._ =Francis, Samuel Ward.= _N. Y._, 1835-1886. Son of J. W. Francis, _supra_. A physician of New York city and subsequently of Newport, Rhode Island. Mott’s Clinics; Water; Inside and Out; Biographical Sketches of New York Surgeons and Physicians; Life and Death; Curious Facts Concerning Man and Nature. =Francis, Valentine Mott.= _N. Y._, 1834. Son of J. W. Francis, _supra_. A physician of Newport who has published Hospital Hygiene. =Francke, Kuno.= _Sg._, 1855- ----. A professor in Harvard University. Social Forces in German Literature: a Study in the History of Civilization. _Ho._ =Franklin, Benjamin.= _Ms._, 1706-1790. A celebrated philosopher, statesman, and scientist who was born in Boston but went to Philadelphia in 1723, where he worked as a journeyman printer. In 1729 he became the proprietor of The Pennsylvania Gazette, and after that date his rise in life was rapid. He established the Philadelphia Library in 1731, the American Philosophical Society in 1744, and was one of the founders in 1749 of the institution which in 1753 became the University of Pennsylvania. In 1753 he was appointed, jointly with William Hunter, postmaster-general of the colonies. He was twice sent to London as colonial agent for Pennsylvania, and in 1770 was appointed agent for Massachusetts in England. In 1776 he helped draft the Declaration of Independence. During the next nine years he was first commissioner, then minister, to France; and was also a member of the commission which negotiated the treaty of peace with England. He was the discoverer of the identity of lightning with electricity, and the inventor of the lightning-rod. As a writer his influence has been felt throughout the world, his works including essays on politics, religion, commerce, science, and philosophy. The Busybody is a series of papers of the type of those in The Spectator, but furnishing much more lively reading. Poor Richard’s Almanac, published 1732-57, was everywhere popular, and had a great influence over the mass of readers. The work by which he is best known, however, is his famous Autobiography, which has been one of the most widely read books ever printed. His Complete Works in ten volumes have been edited by J. Bigelow, _supra_. _See Edinburgh Review, July, 1806, and August, 1817; Contemporary Review, July, 1879; Harper’s Magazine, July, 1880; Godey’s Magazine, 1896; Appleton’s American Biography; Parker’s Historic Americans; Hale’s Franklin in France; Lives by Parton, McMaster, H. Mayhew, Morse; Mignet’s Vie de Franklin, 1873; Wetzel’s Franklin as an Economist._ _Put._