201 



RUSH, BENJAMIN. 



RUSH, BENJAMIN. 



202 



whereby you assured me that, if no mutiny happened, you would 

 keep Bristol for four months. Did you keep it four day's ? Was there 

 anything like a mutiny ? More questions might bo asked ; but now, 

 I confess, to little purpose : my conclusion is to desire you to seek 

 your subsistence, until it shall please God to determine of my condition, 

 somewhere beyond the seas ; to which end I send you herewith a pass ; 

 and I pray God to make you sensible of your present condition, and 

 give you means to redeem what you have lost ; for I shall have no 

 greater joy in a victory than a just occasion, without blushing, to assure 

 you of my being your loving uncle and most faithful friend, C. R. 



"Hereford, September 1645." 



(Clarendon, 'State Papers;' and Oxford edit, of Clarendon's ' Hist. 

 Rebell.') 



Rupert rendered an account of his conduct before the king at 

 Belvoir Castle, and removed the imputation of disloyalty and treason, 

 but not that of indiscretion. He was unpopular throughout the 

 country, and had the misfortune, says Lord Clarendon, " to be no better 

 beloved by the king's party than he was by the parliament." He did 

 not resume his military command ; nevertheless the king could not 

 long do without him. He sought the appointment of commander of 

 that portion of the fleet which still adhered to the king, and as there 

 was no other person to whom the king could readily confide the charge, 

 Rupert obtained the post (1648). His services were immediately 

 required on the Irish coast. Lord Ormond and the Royalist party in 

 Ireland needed assistance, and Rupert, in order to give them, aid, 

 anchored in the harbour of Kinsale. Here Blake, with the Parlia- 

 mentary squadron, blockaded him until (October 1649) he resolved to 

 force his way out, which he did, with the loss of two or three ships, 

 and steered for Lisbon. He was pursued by Blake, who demanded the 

 surrender of his fleet in the name of the Commonwealth, but the king 

 of Portugal, who was in alliance with Charles I., not only protected 

 the king's fleet, but fitted out a squadron to assist Prince Rupert, and 

 so induced Blake to withdraw his fleet. 



Rupert now sailed to Carthagena, and a;ain Blake pursued him, 

 and requested that the prince's ships might be given up to him, but 

 the king of Spain, being in amity with England, a refusal was given on 

 similar grounds to those alleged by the king of Portugal. From 

 Carthagena he sailed to Malaga, where he was so ill-advised as to sink 

 and capture some English merchantmen. Informed of this transaction, 

 Blake immediately followed him, and in January 1651 attacked Rupert's 

 squadron, without reference to the Spanish authorities, burnt and 

 destroyed all but four or five ships, with which the prince escaped to 

 the West Indies, where he supported himself by capturing English and 

 Spanish merchantmen. Prince Maurice, who accompanied his brother, 

 was cast away, and Rupert contrived with two or three ships to return 

 to France, where he sold them, on behalf of Charles II., to the French 

 government. 



On the restoration of Charles II., Rupert left France and returned 

 to England, where he was made a privy councillor, and received other 

 honours. By this time the impetuosity of his youth had diminished, 

 and he judged with more consideration and calmness. When therefore 

 there was a commencement of hostilities with the Dutch, the appoint- 

 ment of Rupert to serve under the Duke of York was looked on with- 

 out dissatisfaction. During the expedition he acquitted himself with 

 credit, which was in no way diminished when in the following year he 

 commanded the British fleet in conjunction with Lord Albemarle. In 

 1673 he was again charged with the command of the fleet, which was 

 actively engaged with the Dutch ; but he found this squadron so ill- 

 equipped, and, what was worse, so weakly manned, that he returned 

 home. The king expressed some coolness at the manner in which he 

 conducted some of his latter engagements. He had now finished the 

 active part of his life ; he was governor of Windsor Castle, and there 

 spent a great portion of his time, occupied for the most part with 

 mechanical and chemical experiments, with painting and engraving ; 

 in the latter art he was an adept, though not the inventor of mezzo- 

 tinto, as has often been erroneously stated. He died at his house at 

 Spring gardens ou the 29th of November 1682. His collection of 

 pictures was sold after his death, and his jewels, which were of con- 

 siderable value. He had illegitimate children, but was never married. 



Rupert was endowed with good natural abilities, had a quick per- 

 ception, was vigorous, active, and energetic ; he could readily change 

 employments and pursuits, acquiring quickly such a knowledge of 

 that which he undertook as to prevent miscarriage. He was impetuous, 

 rash, impatient of control and advice, and wanting in most qualities 

 which constitute a great man. His conduct with the king's troops in 

 Yorkshire, at Marston Moor, and at Bristol, and hia piracies in the 

 West Indies, have been very justly censured. 



RUSH, BENJAMIN, was born in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia 

 in December 17 45. His ancestors had followed William Penn to America 

 in 1683. His father and his grandfather each combined the business 

 of a farm with the occupation of a gunsmith. Losing his father early, 

 he was indebted to the care of an excellent mother for his early edu- 

 cation ; and he passed five years in the grammar-school of his maternal 

 uncle, the Rev. Dr. Finley, afterwards president of the college of 

 Princeton, to which college Rush was removed at the age of fourteen. 

 Here he became distinguished by his application, his acquirements, and 

 the possession of a fluency of expression for which he was ever after 

 remarkable. At fifteen he obtained the degree of bachelor of arts, and 



commenced his medical education with Dr. Redman, then an eminent 

 practitioner in Philadelphia. His early attachment to the writings 

 of Hippocrates, as well as hia classical acquirements, were evinced, 

 when lie was only seventeen, by his translating the Aphorisms from 

 the Greek into English a task which Dr. Hosack, one of his biographers, 

 justly supposes to have influenced the habits of his mind and the cha- 

 racter of his subsequent writings. Even at this early period his diligence 

 and method were such, that his notes of the yellow-fever at that time 

 prevalent in Philadelphia contain records of considerable value. At 

 the age of twenty-one he repaired to Europe, and studied two years at 

 Edinburgh, where Monro, Gregory, Cullen, and Black then held chairs. 

 His inaugural dissertation, on taking his degree in 1768, is entitled 

 'DeCpctioneCiborum inVentriculo,' and contains an account of several 

 experiments made on himself, and some by a fellow-student, to prove 

 the acid changes undergone by the food in the process of digestion. 



After passing some time in attendance on the London hospitals and 

 lectures, and paying a visit to Paris, Dr. Rush returned to Philadelphia 

 in the spring of 1769, and commenced the practice of physic, for which 

 he appears to have been eminently qualified, not only by the liberal 

 plan of his previous studies, but by bis gentleness of disposition and 

 by great humanity. His punctual industry was such, that he is said 

 never to have omitted his duties at the hospital, or those of his private 

 practice, even for a single day, except in the case of illness ; and it is 

 added that his love of order was exemplified by his never being ten 

 minutes behind the time when he was expected. He was very soon 

 elected professor of chemistry, and in 1789 he succeeded Dr. Morgan 

 in the chair of the theory and practice of physic. The College of 

 Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania becoming united in 

 1791, he was appointed professor of the institutes of medicine and 

 clinical practice ; and from the year 1805 to the end of his life he held 

 the united chairs of the theory and practice of medicine and of clinical 

 practice. His popularity as a lecturer was evinced by the number and 

 the attachment of his pupils, and the celebrity which his reputation 

 mainly imparted to the medical school of Philadelphia. At a late 

 period of his life he still warmly expressed the pleasure he had derived 

 from "studying, teaching, and practising medicine;" but the times 

 in which he lived were too full of events to permit him to pay that 

 undivided attention to medical science which he subsequently regretted 

 had ever been impeded by public events. In the Congress of 1776 

 he held a seat as a representative of the state of Pennsylvania, and 

 he subscribed the declaration of independence. He was appointed 

 physician-general of the military hospital of the middle department 

 in 1777, and chosen a member of the state convention for the adoption 

 of the federal constitution ten years afterwards. A few years later, in 

 1794, he describes himself as having "lately become a mere spectator 

 of all public events;" from which period he seems to have devoted 

 himself almost exclusively to medical studies and pursuits : he held 

 however the office of treasurer of the United States Mint during the 

 last fourteen years of his life. On different occasions he received 

 medals from the King of Prussia and the Queen of Etruria, for 

 information communicated to them in answer to inquiries concerning 

 the yellow-fever ; and in 1811 the Emperor of Russia sent him a 

 diamond ring as a testimony of respect for his medical character. 

 His useful life was terminated, after a short illness, on the 19th of 

 April 1813. 



The character of Dr. Rush exhibits a combination of nearly every 

 quality appropriate to a physician ; industry, temperance, benevolence, 

 uprightness, public independence, piety, were in him united with 

 learning and general knowledge, and a profound acquaintance with 

 almost every branch of medical science. By habits of early rising, 

 and a wise economy of time, he was enabled, in the midst of arduous 

 and continual duties, to treasure up and to communicate a variety of 

 observations peculiarly stamped with utility ; and all his exertions 

 were animated by a philanthropy which caused him to devote one- 

 seventh of his receipts to purposes of charity, and dictated his 

 memorable last injunction to his son, "Be indulgent to the poor." 

 In the year 1793, when Philadelphia was ravaged to an unexampled 

 extent by the yellow-fever, his services were so much in request that 

 his exertions nearly cost him his life. His house was filled at all hours 

 with applicants for relief, and his carriage beset in the streets. He 

 married in 1776 Miss Julia Stockton, daughter of Judge Stockton, who 

 is described as a lady of amiable disposition and cultivated mind. 

 Dr. Rush was survived by nine of thirteen children, the fruits of this 

 marriage. 



The number of Dr. Rush's works is considerable; they include a 

 history of the yellow-fever as it appeared in Philadelphia in 1793; and 

 of other epidemics of different years. One of his latest works was a 

 ' Treatise upon the Diseases of the Mind.' His last was a letter to 

 Dr. Hosack on the subject of hydrophobia, which terrible disease he 

 considered to be principally seated in the blood-vessels. In 1787 he 

 published an ' Inquiry into the Effects of Public Punishments upon 

 Criminals and upon Society,' to which the mitigation of the Pennsyl- 

 vanian code is attributed. He also edited the works of Sydenham, 

 Cleghorn, Pringle, and Hillary. 



The principal papers published at various times by Dr. Rush are 

 collected and comprised in two volumes of 'Medical Inquiries and 

 Observations.' The first of these was published at Philadelphia in 

 1788; the second in 1793. Of these volumes, four editions appear to 



