R U S H. 
451 
he had not yet completed his sixteenth year. Soon after 
leaving college, he placed himself under the care of the late 
Dr. John Redman, of Philadelphia, a gentleman who had 
deservedly obtained an extensive share of professional busi¬ 
ness, and who was justly considered an excellent prac¬ 
titioner. With Dr. Redman young Rush continued some 
time, zealously engaged in the acquisition of the several 
branches of medicine. At that day, however, no institution 
for the purpose of medical instruction was established in 
Philadelphia, and his thirst for knowledge being rather ex¬ 
cited than gratified with what he had learned from his pre¬ 
ceptor, he formed the resolution of going abroad in order to 
avail himself of those advantages which were not within his 
reach in his native country. The university of Edinburgh, 
at that time, was at the zenith of its reputation, and justly 
boasted of its able professors, among whom were the elder 
Munro, the elder Gregory, Dr. Cullen, and Dr. Black. 
Thither Rush repaired, and was graduated M. D. in 1768, 
after having performed the usual collegiate duties with much 
honour, and published his inaugural dissertation “ De Con- 
coctione Ciborum in Ventriculo.” 
About the period of Dr. Rush’s return to his native 
country, the first attempt was made in Philadelphia for the 
organization of a medical school. Lectures on anatomy 
and surgery had indeed been delivered in that city, in 1763 
and 1764, to a small class of pupils, by Dr. William 
Shippen, who, two years before, had returned from Europe, 
where he had completed his education under the direction 
of the celebrated Dr. William Hunter; and, in 1765, Dr. 
John Morgan, also, gave instruction on the institutes of me¬ 
dicine and the practice of physic. Three years after this, 
the venerable Dr. Kuhn, who had been a pupd of the illus¬ 
trious Linnaeus, and had preceded Dr. Rush in his medical 
honours at Edinburgh only one year, was made the professor 
of botany and the materia mediea. To this list of teachers, 
Dr. Rush himself was added as professor of chemistry, im¬ 
mediately upon his arrival from England, in 1769. Such 
was the first organization of the medical college of Philadel¬ 
phia. 
That Dr. Rush had, in an eminent degree, the qualifica¬ 
tions of a teacher, and discharged with exemplary fidelity 
the important duties belonging to the elevated station to 
which he was chosen, the popularity attending his lectures, 
the yearly increase in the number of his hearers, and the un¬ 
exampled growth of the college with which he was con¬ 
nected, bear ample testimony. Shortly after this period, he 
was elected a fellow, and also one of the curators of the 
American Philosophical Society. 
While Dr. Rush was thus engaged in the active pursuits 
of his profession, the dispute of America with Great Britain 
arose. Considering the claims of the British government 
unjust, he entered with warmth into the defence of the rights 
of his countrymen. His talents were already well known, 
and the fullest confidence was placed in his integrity and 
patriotism. The crisis demanded his services; and in the 
year 1776 he was chosen a member of congress for the state 
of Pennsylvania, and, on the 4th of July, with eight other 
delegates from that state, he signed the instrument of inde¬ 
pendence. Upon the 11th day of April, 1777, he was ap¬ 
pointed surgeon-general of the military hospital in the middle 
department. His colleague in the medical school, Dr. 
Shippen, on the same day was appointed director-general 
of all the military hospitals for the armies of the United 
States, and Dr. J. Jones was made physician-general of the 
hospital in the middle department. The office of surgeon- 
general was not long held by Dr. Rush, for upon the 1st of 
July, 1777, he was created physician-general of the hospital, 
in the middle department, in the room of Dr. Jones. 
On the 6th of February ensuing. Dr. Rush resigned the 
station of physician-general, and Dr. William Brown was 
appointed in his place. 
Doctor Rush, however, still continued to take an active 
part in the politics of the state to which he belonged. The 
original government of Pennsylvania is known to have been 
perfectly unique in its form, and the constant source of in¬ 
calculable mischief. The House of Representatives, chosen 
annually by the people, and on which there was no check, 
was the sole legislative power; and each succeeding assembly 
often made it their business to undo all that their predecessors 
had done. This kind of government was justly reprobated 
by Dr. Rush, and the necessity and wisdom of a reformation 
in it were too apparent not to be attempted. Dr. Rush, and 
many other distinguished abettors of the cause, had soon 
after the satisfaction of seeing a new form of government 
established in Pennsylvania, by a general convention of the 
people. 
Soon after, he formed the resolution of retiring from 
political life, and of devoting the remainder of his days, 
with increased ardour, to his profession. He was still further 
induced to this resolution, from the consideration of the state 
of medicine in his native country at that time, which, it is 
scarcely necessary to remark, was in a very low condition. 
Happy for medical science and the interests of humanity, 
that he so early formed such a resolution, and that he was 
so steady, uniform, and indefatigable in the accomplishment 
of it! 
During the long and brilliant career of Dr. Rush’s life, 
from this time to its termination, he may be considered as 
exclusively occupied in duties pertaining to his profession, 
and not unlike another Howard, in “ surveying the man¬ 
sions of sorrow and pain,” and in mitigating and removing 
the distresses of all within his power. His biography, 
therefore, like that of most other scientific men, consists 
chiefly in a history of his professional labours. How nu¬ 
merous and important his services, as an author, have been, 
will be readily seen from a brief detail of his writings, which 
we shall attempt to give, as nearly as practicable, in chrono¬ 
logical order. 
The first fruits of his professional labours, as an author, 
was an account of the effects of the Stramonium, or thorn 
apple ; this appeared in the year. 1770, and was published 
in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 
vol. i. The same year he addressed a letter on the use¬ 
fulness of Wort in ill-conditioned ulcers, to his friend Dr. 
Huck, of London, which was published in the Medical 
Observations and Inquiries of London, vol. iv. In 1774, he 
read, before the Philosophical Society, his interesting In¬ 
quiry into the Natural History of Medicine among the In¬ 
dians of North America, which formed the subject of an 
anniversary oration. He this year again addressed another 
letter to Dr. Huck, containing some remarks on Bilious 
fevers, which was printed in the London Medical Observa¬ 
tions and Inquiries, vol. v. To this succeeded his Account 
of the Influence of the Military and Political events of the 
American Revolution upon the Human Body, and Observa¬ 
tions upon the Diseases of the Military Hospitals of the 
United States, which his situation in the army eminently 
qualified him to make. In 1785, he offered to the Philo¬ 
sophical Society of Philadelphia an Inquiry into the Cause 
of the Increase of Bilious and Intermitting Fevers in Penn¬ 
sylvania, published in their Transactions, vol. ii.; and soon 
after, in quick succession, appeared Observations on Te¬ 
tanus, an Inquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes 
upon the Moral Faculty, Remarks on the Effects of Ardent 
Spirits upon the Body and Mind, and his Inquiry into the 
Causes and Cure of the Pulmonary Consumption. About 
this time, also, appeared his paper entitled Informat ion to 
Europeans disposed to migrate to the United States, in a 
letter to a friend in Great Britain; a subject which had 
already occupied the attention of Dr. Franklin, but which 
Dr. Rush considered still further deserving notice, on ac¬ 
count of the important changes which the United States had 
lately undergone. To this paper followed his Observations 
on the Population of Pennsylvania, Observations on To¬ 
bacco, and his Essay on the Study of the Latin and Greek Lan¬ 
guages, which was first published in the American Museum 
of Philadelphia. This last mentioned paper, which has 
been the fertile topic of much animadversion, was, with 
several other essays of Dr. Rush, and his Eulogiums on Dr. 
Cullen and the illustrious Rittenhouse, (the former delivered 
in 
