472 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



elegance. Like Gibbon, "He 

 investigated with his pen always 

 in his liand ;" believing, with an 

 ancient classic, " that to study 

 without a pen is to dream : — 

 " Studium sine calamo, som- 

 nium." 



Having with great fidelity com- 

 pleted his course of medical studies 

 under Dr. Redman, he embarked 

 for Eui'ope, and passed two years 

 at the University of Edinburgh, 

 attending the lectures of those 

 celebrated professors. Dr. Monro, 

 Dr. Gregory, Dr. Cullen, and Dr. 

 Black. 



In the spi:ingof 1768, after de- 

 fending an inaugural dissertation 

 " De Coctione Ciborum in Ven- 

 triculo," he received the degree of 

 Doctor of Medicine. In that ex- 

 ercise which was written with 

 classical purity and elegance, it 

 was the object of Dr. Rush to il- 

 lustrate by experiment an opinion 

 that had been expressed by Dr. 

 Cullen, that the aliment, in a few 

 hours after being received into 

 the stomach, undergoes the ace- 

 tous fermentation. This fact he 

 established by three different ex- 

 periments made upon himself; 

 experiments which a mind less 

 ardent in the pursuit of truth 

 would readily have declined. 



From Edinbuigh Dr. Rush 

 proceeded to London, where, in 

 attendance upon liospitals of that 

 city, the lectures of its celebrated 

 teachers, and the society of the 

 learned, he made many accessions 

 to the stock of knowledge he had 

 already acquired. 



In the spring of 17'j9, after vi- 

 siting Paris, he returned to his 

 native country, and immediately 

 commenced the practice of physic 

 in the city of Philadelphia/ in 



which he soon became eminently 



distinguished . 



Few men ha\e entered the pro- 

 fession in any age or country with 

 more numerous qualifications as 

 a physician than those possessed 

 by Dr. Rush. His gentleness of 

 manner, his s)Tnpathy with the 

 distressed, liis kindness to the 

 poor, his varied and extensive 

 erudition, his professional ac- 

 quirements, and his faithful at- 

 tention to the sick, all united in 

 procuring for liim the esteem, the 

 respect, and the confidence of his 

 fellow-citizens, and thereby in- 

 troducing him to an extensive 

 and lucrative practice. 



It is abserved, as an evidence of 

 the diligence and fidelity with 

 which Dr. Rush devoted himself 

 to his medical studies, during the 

 six years he had been the i)upil of 

 Dr. Retlman, that he absented 

 himself from his business but two 

 days in the whole of that period 

 of time. I believe it may also be 

 said, that fiom the time he com- 

 menced the practice of medicine 

 to the termination of his long 

 and valuable life, except when 

 confined by sickness, or occupied 

 h\ business of a public nature, he 

 never absented himself from the 

 city of Philadelphia, nor omitted 

 the performance of his profession- 

 al duties a single day. It is also 

 stated that during the thirty years 

 of his attendance as a physician to 

 the Pennsylvania hospital, such 

 Avas his punctuality, his love of 

 order, and his sense of duty, that 

 lie not only made his daily visit 

 to that Institution, but was never 

 absent ten minutes after the ap- 

 pointed hour of prescribing. 



In a few months after his estab- 

 lishment in Philadelphia, Dr. 



Rush 



