RUS 



RUSECK, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Konigin- 

 gratz ; two miles N. of Konigingratz. 



RUSEI, a town of Walachia, in the Kodmana ; 45 

 miles W. of Buchareft. N. lat. 44 21'. E. long. 24° 47'. 

 RUSGUNIA, in Ancient Geography, Ruftonium of Pto- 

 lemy, Rulhifia of Mela, and Rufconia of Pliny and others, 

 a cape near Algiers, on the coalt of Africa, now Temend- 

 fufe, or Metafus, with a tabled land, as the mariners call 

 a flat hillock that rifes up in the middle of it. The Turks 

 have here a fmall caltle ior the fecurity of the adjacent 

 roads, once the chief ftation of their navy, where are Hill 

 the traces of an ancient Cothon, with feveral heaps of ruins 

 of the fame extent with thole of Tefeflad, and which have 

 no lefs contributed to the fortification of Algiers. 



RUSH, Benjamin, in Biography, an eminent phyfician, 

 and profeflbr of the inftitutea and practice of medicine in 

 the Hiiiveriity of Pennfylvania, was born near Brillol, in 

 the itate of Pennfylvania, on the 5th of January, 1745. 

 His auceltors belonged to the fociety of Quakers, and 

 were of the number of thofe who followed the celebrated 

 William Penn to Pennlylvania, in the year 16S3 : his 

 grandfather, James Rufli, refided on his eftate near Phila- 

 delphia, and died in the year 1727: his fon, who was the 

 father of the fubjeCt of thefe memoirs, inherited both his 

 farm and his trad--, which was that of a gun-fmith. He died 

 while Benjamin was yet young. His widow, a moll excel- 

 lent woman, upon whom the education of young Rufli thus 

 neceflarily devolved, placed him, at an early age, under 

 the direction of the late Rev. Samuel Finley, at Welt Not- 

 tingham, in Chefter county, Pennfylvania, by whom he was 

 taught the rudiments of claflical knowledge. Dr. Finley, 

 afterwards better known as the prefident of Princeton college, 

 New Jerfey, was an able fcholar and faithful teacher, and, 

 being alfo related to Mrs. Rulh, may be fuppofed to have 

 paid great attention to the improvement of his young pupil. 

 But whatever may have been the affiduity with which his 

 education was directed by his preceptor, he poflefl'ed an 

 ardent defire for knowledge, and was moft unwearied in the 

 purfuit of it. 



From the academy of Dr. Finley he was removed to the 

 college of Princeton, where he finiflied his claflical educa- 

 tion, and was admitted to the degree of A. B. in 1760, 

 when he had not yet completed his lixtcenth year. He was 

 now left to choole a profeflion, and in the choice which he 

 made, he doubtlefs was actuated by confeientious motives. 

 He fecms to have fully known his own character, and to 

 have formed a proper ellimate of his talents, and by apply- 

 ing them to the fcience and practice of medicine, to have 

 been defirous of doing all pollible good to the family of 

 mankind. That he was directed by thefe motives, may 

 be inferred from his own opinien of the utility of medi- 

 cine. " So great," fay:, he, " are the bleilings which 

 mankind derive from it, that if every other argument failed 

 to prove the adminillration of a providence in human aflairs, 

 the profeflion of medicine would be fully fufficient for that 

 ptirpofe." 



He accordingly, foon after leaving college, placed him. 

 felf under the care of the late Dr. John Redman, of 

 Philadelphia, a gentleman who had defervedly obtained an 

 extenfive (hare or profeilional bulincfs, and who wasjultly 

 ponfidered an excellent practitioner. With Dr. Redman 

 young Rufli continued fome time, zealoufly engaged in the 

 acquiiition of the fevcral branches of medicine. At that 

 day, however, no inilitution for the purpofe of medical 

 inllruction was ellablilhrd in Philadelphia, and his third for 

 knowledge being rather excited than gratified witli what he 

 had learned from his preceptor, he formed the refolution of 



It u s 



goir.g abroad in order to avail himfelf of thofe advantages 

 which were not within his reach in his native country. The 

 univerfity of Edinburgh, at that time, was at the zenith of 

 its reputation, and jullly boalted of its able profeflors, among 

 whom were the elder Munro, the elder Gregory, Dr. Cullen 

 and Dr. Black. Thither Rulh repaired, and was graduated 

 M.D. in 1768, after having performed the ufual collegiate 

 duties with much honour, and publifhed his inaugural dif- 

 fertation " De Concoctione Ciborum in Ventriculo." In 

 this performance he candidly acknowledged himfelf indebted, 

 for many of the opinions which he advanced, to his dif- 

 tinguiihed teacher Dr. Cullen. 



About the period of Dr. Rufli's return to his native 

 country, the firft attempt was made in Philadelphia for the 

 organization of a medical fchool. Lectures on anatomy and 

 furgery had indeed been delivered in that city, in 1763 and 



1764, to a fmall clafs of pupils, by the late Dr. William 

 Shippen, who, two years before, had returned from Eu- 

 rope, where he had completed his education under the di- 

 redtion of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter j and, in 



1765, Dr. John Morgan, alfo, gave inltruftion on the in- 

 ftitutes of medicine and the practice of phytic. Three years 

 after this, the venerable Dr. Kuhn, who had been a pupil 

 of the illultrious Linnaeus, and had preceded Dr. Rufli in 

 his medical honours at Edinburgh only one year, was made 

 the profeflbr of botany and the materia medica. To this 

 liit of teachers, Dr. Rufli himfelf was added as profeflbr of 

 chemiltry, immediately upon his arrival from England in 

 1769. Such was the firlt organization of the medical 

 college of Philadelphia. 



That Dr. Rufli had, in an eminent degree, the quali- 

 fications of a teacher, and difcharged with exemplary fidelity 

 the important duties belonging to the elevated Itation to 

 which he was chofen, the popularity attending his lectures, 

 the yearly increafe in the number of his hearers, and the un- 

 exampled growth of the college with which he was con- 

 nected, bear ample teltimony. Shortly after this period, he 

 was elected a fellow, and alfo one of the curators of the 

 American Philofophical Society. 



While Dr. Rufli was thus engaged in the active purfuits 

 of his profeflion, the difpute of the then American colonies 

 with Great Britain arofe. Confidering the claims of the 

 Britifh government unjuft, he entered with warmth into the 

 defence of the rights of his countrymen. His talents were 

 already well known, and the fulleil confidence was placed 

 in his integrity and patriotifm. The crifis demanded his 

 fervices; and in the year 1776 he was chofen a member of 

 congrefs for the itate of Pennfylvania, and, on the 4th of 

 July, with eight other delegates from that Itate, he ligned 

 the inllrument of independence. Upon the nth day of 

 April, 1777, he was appointed furgeon-general of the 

 military hofpital in the middle department. His colleague 

 in the medical fchool, Dr. Shippen, on the fame day was 

 appointed director-general of all the military hofpitals for 

 the armies of the United States, and Dr. J. Jones was made 

 phyfician-general of the hofpital in the middle department. 

 The office of furgeon-general was not long held by Dr* 

 Rum, for upon the lit of July, 1777, he was created phy- 

 fician-general of the hofpital, in the middle department, in 

 the room of Dr. Jones. 



On the 6th of February enfuing, Dr. Rufli refigned the 

 ftation of phyfician-general, and Dr. William Brown was 

 appointed in his place. 



Doctor Rufli, however, Hill continued to take an active 



part in the politics of the ftate to which he belonged. The 



original government of Pennfylvania is known to have beea 



perfectly unique in its form, and the conftant fource of in- 



4 Z 2 calculable 



