Benjamin Franklin Papers
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The Abbé Alessandro (Agostino) Beliardi’s Account of Franklin’s Remedy for a Cold, [1782 or after]

The Abbé Alessandro (Agostino) Beliardi’s Account of Franklin’s Remedy for a Cold6

AD: Bibliothèque nationale

[1782 or after]

M. Holcker a appris du docteur francklin qu’une petite cuiellerée à café de quinquinà jettée dans le fond d’un goblet où l’on verse un peu de lait pour Les bien meler ensemble, ensuitte remplissant le reste du goblet avec du lait, et en avalant un verre le matin à jeune, un autre en se mettant à table pour dinner, et un troisieme en se couchant, que çest un excellant remede pour guerir un gròs rhume en trois jours.

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

6Born in Italy, the abbé (1723–1803) began his career in service to the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican. He became agent général du commerce et de la marine for France in Spain, and during several trips to Paris worked closely with Choiseul on Franco-Spanish trade. He was one of several supporters who joined the minister in exile at Chanteloup: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (60 vols. to date, Rome, 1960–); Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter, II, 266–7.

This account of BF’s remedy appears in the abbé’s notes and journals, which are described in Pierre Muret, “Les papiers de l’abbé Béliardi et les relations commerciales de la France et de l’Espagne au milieu du XVIIIe siècle (1757–1770),” in Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine IV (1902–03), 657–72. We tentatively place it in 1782 because of a reference elsewhere on the same page to the influenza of that year.

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