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Benjamin Rush

BENJAMIN RUSH was born in Byberry, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of December, 1745. His father died when he was only six years of age, and the care of his education devolved upon his mother, whose prudent management of her son may be learned from the result.

After completing his preparatory studies, he was entered, in 1759, a student in the College of Princeton. On leaving college, he commenced the study of medicine, under the superintendence of Dr. Redman, of Philadelphia. In 1766, he went to Edinburgh, where he spent two years at the university in that city, and from which he received the degree of M.D., in 1768. The next winter after his graduation he passed in London, and having visited France, he returned, in the autumn of the same year, to Philadelphia, and commenced the practice of medicine. In 1769, he was elected professor of chemistry in the College of Philadelphia; and was afterwards appointed professor of the institutes and practice of medicine, and of clinical practice, in the same university. In the year 1793, Philadelphia was visited by that horrible scourge, the yellow fever. For some time after its commencement, no successful system of management was resorted to. Dr. Rush afterwards met with a manuscript, which contained an account of the yellow fever, as it prevailed in Virginia, in 1741, and which was given to him by Dr. Franklin, and had been written by Dr. Mitchell, of Virginia. In this manuscript the efficacy of powerful evacuants was urged, even in cases of extreme debility. This plan Dr. Rush adopted, and imparted the prescription to the college of physicians. An immense accession of business was the consequence, and his mode of treatment was wonderfully successful. The following entry, dated September 10th, is found in his note-book: "Thank God, out of one hundred patients, whom I visited or prescribed for this day, I have lost none."

Between the 8th and 15th of September, Dr. Rush visited and prescribed for a hundred and a hundred and twenty patients a day. In the short intervals of business which he spent at his meals, his house was filled with patients, chiefly the poor, waiting for his gratuitous advice. For many weeks he seldom at without prescribing for many as he sat at table. While thus endangering his health and his life by excess of practice, Dr. Rush received repeated letters from his friends in the country, entreating him to leave the city. To one of these letters he replied, "that he had resolved to stick to his principles, his practice, and his patients, to the last extremity." The incessant labors of Dr. Rush, during this awful visitation, nearly prostrated his constitution, but he was finally so far restored as to resume the duties of his profession. His mode of treatment was also called into question by many of his contemporaries, notwithstanding the success which had attended it. At length the prejudices against him infected not only physicians, but a considerable part of the community. The public journals were enlisted against him, and in numerous pamphlets his system was attacked with great severity. He was even called a murderer, and was at length threatened to be prosecuted and expelled the city.

Notwithstanding the great labors of Dr. Rush as a lecturer and practitioner, he was a voluminous writer. His printed works consist of seven volumes, six of which treat of medical subjects, and the other is a collection of essays, literary, moral, and philosophical. He was a constant and indefatigable scholar. He extracted so largely from the magazine of information accumulated in the mind of Benjamin Franklin, that he once mentioned to a friend his intention of writing a book with the title of Frankliniana, in which he proposed to collect the fragments of wisdom, which he had treasured in his memory, as they fell in conversation from the lips of that great man. Doctor Rush was a member of the celebrated Congress of 1776, which declared these States free and independent. The impulse given to learning and science by this event he used to estimate of incalculable value. In 1777, he was appointed Physician-General of the military hospital in the middle department. In 1787, he became a member of the Convention of Pennsylvania, for the adoption of the Federal Constitution. This instrument received his warmest approbation. For the last fourteen years of his life, he was treasurer for the United States Mint, by appointment of President Adams. Doctor Rush took a deep interest in the many private associations, for the advancement of human happiness, with which Pennsylvania abounds. He led the way in the establishment of the Philadelphia Dispensary, and was the principal agent in founding Dickinson College, in Carlisle. For some years he was president of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and also of the Philadelphia Medical Society. He was a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society, and vice-president of the American Philosophical Society. He was an honorary member of many of the literary institutions, both of this country and of Europe. In 1805, he was honored by the King of Prussia, with a medal, for his replies to certain questions on the yellow fever. On a similar account, he was presented with a gold medal in 1807, from the Queen of Etruria; and in 1811, the Emperor of Russia sent him a diamond ring, as a testimony of his respect for his medical character.

The pen of Doctor Rush was powerfully employed against some of the vices and habits of mankind. His "Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind," has been more read than any of his works. He was a brilliant and eloquent lecturer; and he possessed in a high degree those talents which engage the heart.

The life of Doctor Rush was terminated on the 19th of April, 1813, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. During his illness, which was but of few days' continuance, his house was beset by crowds of citizens, such was the general anxiety in respect to this excellent man. When at length he died, the news of his decease spread a deep gloom over the city, and expressions of profound sympathy were received from all parts of the country.