Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1031

RUSH and published the whole correspondence in the newspapers. One result of the controversy over the yellow fever in 1797 was the founding of the "Academy of Medicine of Philadelphia" by the adherents of Dr. Rush. The latter resigned from the College of Physicians, but always protested that he bore no ill-will towards that body. Dr. Physick was the first president of the new society.

In 1783 Dr. Rush was elected physician to the Pennsylvania Hospital, a capacity in which he served until his death. During that time he never missed a daily visit and was never more than ten minutes late. Morton's "History of the Pennsylvania Hospital" contains a most interesting account of his many services to that institution, particularly the reforms and advanced methods advocated by him in the treatment of the insane.

Dr. Rush served in a number of important political and military capacities. He was a member of the Provincial Congress of 1776, and as such signed the Declaration of Independence. On April 11, 1777, he was appointed by Congress, surgeon-general of the medical department of the Continental Army. Of his military services but little information is ascertainable. He became involved in the Conway cabal, being an ardent partisan of Gates and Samuel Adams in their criticism of what they termed the Fabian policy of Washington. With the downfall of the cabal Rush realized that his prospects for advancement in the Army were shattered, and wisely retired to the field of professional activity in which he had occupied so prominent a position. One invaluable result of his military experience remains in his pamphlet entitled "Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers," which was published by order of the Board of War. It is an excellent exposition of the rules of military hygiene and camp sanitation. He refused to draw any salary for his military services. In 1799 he was appointed Treasurer of the United States Mint, a position which he held until his death, when his son was appointed to succeed him.

Among his many activities may be mentioned his membership in the American Philosophical Society, before which he read a number of communications and of which he was at one time vice-president. He was chief among the founders of the Philadelphia Dispensary in 1786, the first dispensary established in this country. He assisted in founding the institution now known as Franklin and Marshal College, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and also in the founding of Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Three subjects which were particularly near to his heart were the freeing of the negroes, the abolition of the death penalty, and the restriction of the immoderate use of alcohol and tobacco. On all these subjects he wrote many disquisitions and delivered frequent addresses.

He was very active in founding the Bible Society, and also in many other projects for the furtherance of religion, St. Thomas' Church, a large negro place of worship, was founded through his activity.

When he was a young man he wrote in stilted phrase to Dr. Ramsey: "Medicine is my wife; science is my mistress; books are my companions; my study is my grave; there I lie buried, the world forgetting, by the world forgot." In the latter part of his life he had put away this preternatural gravity and after having married a wife and begot thirteen children by her he writes in treating of the causes of insanity "celibacy is a pleasant breakfast, a tolerable dinner, but a very bad supper. The supper is not only bad, but, eaten alone, no wonder it sometimes becomes a predisposing cause to madness." His wife, whom he married in 1776, was Miss Julia Stockton, of a New Jersey family.

In addition to his printed works, which were published in seven volumes, Rush edited editions of some of the most famous English works on medicine, including those of Sydenham. Among his writings, besides those which have been already mentioned, there are several worthy of special note. He wrote of the disease we now term thermic fever, describing it with great accuracy in "An Account of the Disease occasioned by Drinking Cold Water in Warm Weather." There are also a number of other treatises by him on climatic affections, all possessing distinct value. Probably his best known book is his "Medical Inquiries and Observations on the Diseases of the Mind." Pepper stated that "His more elaborate addresses and orations are admirable, and some of them, as those on Cullen and on Rittenhouse, and his address on "The Influence of Physical Causes on the Moral Faculties' are splendid performances." John Shaw Billings said of Rush's writings that they "Excel in manner rather than matter."

In Ramsay's sketch is included the accompanying letter, written by Mrs. Rush to (q. v.), shortly after her husband's death, describing his last illness.

"At nine o'clock in the evening of Wednesday, the fourteenth of April, 1813, Dr. Rush,