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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Benjamin Rush Biography RUSH,
Benjamin (1745-1813). An American physician and patriot, born at Byberry (now
included in Philadelphia), Pa. He graduated at Princeton in 1760 and after
studying in Edinburgh (M.D., 1768), London, and Paris was appointed professor of
chemistry in the Philadelphia Medical College (now the medical department of the
University of Pennsylvania) upon his return to Philadelphia in 1769
He was elected a member of the Continental Congress and was a signer of
the Declaration of Independence. He saw active service as surgeon at the front
in 1776-78, when he resigned and joined the Conway Cabal (q.v.) against Washington.
Returning to Philadelphia he again took up his duties, and founded the
Philadelphia Dispensary in 1785 and also, it is said, the College of Physicians,
which seems to have been consolidated with the University of Pennsylvania. He
took part in 1780 in the formation of the new State constitution and was a
member of the Pennsylvania convention for the ratification of the Federal
Constitution. He did efficient work during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1793.
Rush was opposed to solidism, and was a strong adherent of the bloodletting
theory. A good account of his theories and methods is given by S. Weir Mitchell
in The Red City (1908). In 1799 he was
appointed treasurer of the United States Mint at Philadelphia, and retained this
position till his death. Rush was a founder of Dickinson College, vice president
of the Philadelphia Bible Society and of the American Philosophical Society, and
president of the Philadelphia Medical Society, as well as of the Society for the
Abolition of Slavery. He published Medical Inquiries and Observations (1789-98; 3d ed., 1809); Essays
(1798; 2d ed., 1806) Diseases of the Mind
(1812; 5th ed., 1835) and writings on slavery, on temperance and health, and on
politics. His essays on the diseases and vices of the Indians are a valuable
addition to our knowledge of the American aborigines. |