Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1032

RUSH after having been as well as usual through the day, complained of chilliness and general indisposition, and said he would go to bed. While his room was prepared and a fire making, he became so cold that he called for some brandy and drank it; he then went to his room, bathed his feet in warm water, got into a warm bed, and took some hot drink; a fever soon came on, attended with great pain in his limbs and in his sides; he passed a restless night, but after daylight a perspiration came on, and all the pains were relieved except that in his side, which became more acute. He sent for a bleeder, and had ten ounces of blood taken from his arm, with evident relief. At ten o'clock Dr. Dorsey called and saw him, heard what had been done, and approved of the treatment; observed that his pulse was calm, but rather weak, and advised him to drink plentifully of wine whey, which was immediately given to him. He remained the rest of the day and on Friday with but little apparent disease, though never quite free from fever, and always complaining when he tried to take a long breath. On the morning of Saturday he awoke with an acute pain in his side, and desired that the bleeder might be sent for; to this I objected on account of the weak state of his pulse. I proposed sending for Dr. Dorsey, but Dr. Rush would not consent to his being disturbed; he reminded me of his having had a cough all the winter, and said 'this disease is taking hold of my lungs, and I shall go off in a consumption.' At eight o'clock Dr. Dorsey saw him and, upon feeling his pulse, objected to his losing any more blood, and called in. Dr. Physick, who agreed in the opinion that bleeding was improper. The pain in his side, however, continuing, and his breathing becoming more difficult, Dr. Physick consented to his losing three ounces of blood from his side by cupping; this operation relieved him so that he fell into a refreshing sleep, and towards the evening of Saturday his fever went off, and he passed a comfortable night, and on Sunday morning seemed free from disease. When Dr. Physick saw him, he told me that Dr. Rush was doing well, that nothing now appeared necessary but to give him as much nourishment as he could take; he drank porter and water and conversed with strength and sprightliness, believing that he was getting well, until about four o'clock in the afternoon when his fever returned, but in a moderate degree. At five o'clock Dr. Physick and Dr. Dorsey visited him, and found him not so well as in the morning, but did not appear to apprehend what so soon followed, for at that time nothing was ordered different from the morning. At nine o'clock they again visited him, when they found him so low as to apprehend a fatal termination of his disease. Stimulants of the strongest kind were then administered; you, my friend, know with how little effect!"

A detailed list of his writings can be seen in the "Surgeon-general's Catalogue," Washington, District of Columbia.



Russ, John Denison (1801–1881).

John Denison Russ, pioneer physician for the blind, and penologist, was born at Chebacco (now Essex), Massachusetts, September 1, 1801. He received an A. B. front Yale College in 1823, studied medicine at Boston, New Haven, Paris, London and Dublin, receiving his M. D. from Yale in 1825, and began to practise in New York in 1826. From 1827 to 1830 he was almoner of the supplies sent from Boston to Greece, and superintendent of a hospital which he established at Poros, for fifteen months. On his return to New York in the latter year he engaged in the practice of medicine, and March 15, 1832, began the instruction of three blind boys, at his own expense, soon increasing the number to six. He was invited to organize the New England Asylum for the Blind, chartered in 1829, but as he declined, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe (q. v.) received the appointment, and Dr. Russ was appointed superintendent of the New York blind institution in March, 1832 He instructed his pupils in basket making, rug weaving and similar trades, so that they might become self-supporting. Finding that the alphabet, maps and figures in use in European institutions were very cumbrous and expensive, he invented a phonetic alphabet of forty-one characters, sufficiently like those of the Roman alphabet, to be read with little difficulty by seeing persons, to which he added twenty-two suffixes and prefixes, and proposed to print books for the blind, in raised type of these characters. He also greatly simplified the mathematical characters for the blind. His