Benjamin Rush

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Portrait of Benjamin Rush by Charles Willson Peale, 1783.

Benjamin Rush (December 24, 1745 - April 19, 1813) was an American physician, educator, chemist, writer, and Founding Father. He was one of Pennsylvania's delegates to the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He is called the "Father of American Psychiatry" for his work with mental illness and the American Psychiatric Association uses his likeness on their official seal. Every physician in America up until the Civil War was influenced by the practices and teachings of Dr. Rush.

Early Life and Education

Rush was born on the outskirts of Philadelphia in Byberry Township. His father, a gunsmith, died when Benjamin was 6 years old and he was raised by his mother. He began his formal education at the age of 8 at the Nottingham Academy, under the tutelage of his Presbyterian uncle, the Reverend Steve Finley. At the age of 13 he was accepted into the College of New Jersey, a Presbyterian school which is known today as Princeton University. Two years later he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree decided to pursue a medical career. His uncle secured him a six year apprenticeship with the leading physician in Philadelphia, Dr. John Redman. Rush proved to be a skillful apprentice, and in 1766 he traveled to London and enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, the top medical school in the world. In London, Rush wrote to the most famous American in England, Benjamin Franklin, in hopes of having him write letters of introduction to his connections at Edinburgh. Although Franklin and Rush had never met, the letters were written and it began a lifelong friendship between the two men. Rush excelled at Edinburgh and after his first year he was admited into the exclusive Medical Society. Rush was also converted to republicanism by a schoolmate, who convinced him to redirect his anger at Parliament over the Stamp Act of 1765 towards the monarch instead. Rush would graduate from Edinburgh in 1768 and time in London and Paris cultivating his professional and political mind before returning to Philadelphia in 1769.

Philadelphia's Physician

Rush faced the challenge of establishing a practice in a city split among religious lines and already having a good amount of quality physicians. Consequently, he began his practice by focusing on the poor. He formed the Society for Inoculating the Poor which provided free smallpox vaccinations. He also had a profitable apprenticeship program, teaching seven or more apprentices at a time for a fee.

On August 1, 1769, Rush was chosen by the board of trustees of the College of Philadelphia (renamed University of Pennsylvania in 1789) as professor of chemistry. He was the first person to hold such a position in the colonies. He also wrote Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry, the first American chemistry textbook. In 1789, he gave up his chemistry position and began teaching medicine instead.

Rush made his first medical publication on October 14, 1769, titled Dissertation on the Spasmodic Asthma of Children. He went on to write and publish a series of essays that dealt with dieting, physical exercise, and the gout. On November 2, 1770, in a speech before the American Philosophical Society, Rush attacked the popular medical practices of the day, which were influenced by Hermann Boerhaave. He was a proponent of bloodletting to cure diseases, because he was convinced that fevers originated from arterial tension. His radical new ideas on medicine caused him to be an outcast among his peers, who would subsequently stop sending him referrals. Despite being at odds with the medical and religious communities, his success continued to grow. The income from his publications, his salary from teaching, and his number of patients doubling from 1772-1773, allowed for him to be financially secure enough to become more politically active.

Rush's writings about the political events surrounding the colonies led to his correspondence leading politicians such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He also encouraged the work of Thomas Paine, including suggesting the name Common Sense as well as providing some of it's ideas.

Rush joined the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1783, where he would work until his death. He was the first to recognize that mental illness could be treated, and advocated the humane treatment of those patients. He rejected the popular belief that diesases of the mind were caused by demonic possession or poor morals. In 1792, he pushed the state legislature for funding improvements to the hospital's mental ward. Shortly before his death he published Observations and Inquiries Upon the Diseases of the Mind which the first psychiatric text book printed in the United States.

In August 1793, there was a mass influx of refugees arriving in Philadelphia from the island of Santo Domingo (present day Haiti). Many of them were infected with yellow fever and the mosquitos that spread it made the voyage as well. By November, 5,000 people, which was 10% of the population, had died. Rush was at the forefront of treating and studying the disease. He quickly diagnosed the disease and advised people to flee the city. He incorrectly believed treatment called for heavy bloodletting, sometimes draining up to four fifths of a patients blood. He also persuaded members of the black community to serve as nurses because he believed they were immune to the disease, which also turned out to be untrue. At the end of the epidemic he published his observations in An Account of the Bilious remitting Yellow Fever, which gained him international recognition.

American Revolution

Rush was elected to the Second Continental Congress and served from 1776-1777, where he would go on to sign the Declaration of Independence. He would also be a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly that ratified the Constitution in 1787. He also served from 1776-1778 as a surgeon in the Continental Army. Rush found the conditions to be inexcusably substandard and was sharply critical of his former teacher, William Shippen, as well as George Washington.

Opposition to Slavery

Rush was also a prominent abolitionist. In 1773, he wrote the pamphlet An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, upon Slave-Keeping. The pamphlet, written in support of piece of legislation to increase import taxes on slaves, attacked the popular claim that by treating slaves well they were afforded a better life than if they were free. He also joined the Pennsylvania Abolition Society in 1787 and helped to rewrite their constitution.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

  • Rush, Benjamin. An Account of the Manners of the German Inhabitants of Pennsylvania (1789). 1910. Reprint, With a new introduction by William T. Parsons. Collegeville: Institute on Pennsylvania Dutch Studies, 1974.
  • ———. An Account of the State of the body and Mind in Old Age. Edinburgh: N.p., 1807.
  • ———. An Address on the Slavery of the Negroes in America. Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America. New York: Arno Press, 1969.
  • ———. An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, Upon Slave-keeping. Philadelphia: Printed by J. Dunlap, 1773.
  • ———. The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush; His Travels Through Life Together with his Commonplace Book for 1789-1813. 1948. Reprint, Edited with introduction and notes by George W. Corner. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, [1970].
  • ———. Benjamin Rush: A Discourse Delivered Before the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Feb. 6th, 1787 on the Objects of Their Institution: A Facsimile of the 1787 Address with an introduction by Thomas A. Horrocks. Philadelphia, Pa.: Historical Collections of the Library, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 1987.
  • ———. Benjamin Rush’s Lectures on the Mind. Edited, annotated, and introduced by Eric T. Carlson, Jeffrey L. Wollock, and Patricia S. Noel. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1981.
  • ———. Considerations on the Injustice and Impolicy of Punishing Murder by Death: Extracted from the American Museum: With Additions. Philadelphia: From the Press of Mathew Carey, May 4, 1792.
  • ———. Considerations Upon the Present Test-law of Pennsylvania: Addressed to the Legislature and Freemen of the State. Philadelphia: Printed by Hall and Sellers, [1784].
  • ———. An Enquiry into the Effects of Spiritous Liquors Upon the Human Body, and Their Influence Upon the Happiness of Society. 1787. Reprint, Philadelphia: Printed by Thomas Bradford, [1790].
  • ———. Essays: Literary, Moral, and Philosophical. 1806. Reprint, edited with an introductory essay by Michael Meranze, Schenactady, N.Y.: Union College Press, 1988.
  • ———. Experiments and Observations on the Mineral Waters of Philadelphia, Abington, and Bristol, in the Province of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Printed by James Humphreys, junior, 1773.
  • ———. An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Body and Mind: With an Account of the Means of Preventing, and of the Remedies for Cuing Them.1790. Reprint, New York: C. Davis, 1811.
  • ———. An Inquiry into the Various Sources of the Usual Forms of Summer & Autumnal Disease in the United States. Philadelphia: J. Conrad & Co.; Baltimore: M. & J. Conrad & Co.; Printed by T. & G. Palmer, 1805.
  • ———. Letters. Edited by L. H. Butterfield. [Princeton]: Published for the American Philosophical Society by Princeton University Press, 1951.
  • ———. Medical Inquiries and Observations. 1794. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1972.
  • ———. Medical Inquiries and Observations on the Diseases of the Mind. 1812. Reprint, Special edition, Birmingham, Ala.: Classics of Medicine Library, 1979.
  • ———. My Dearest Julia: The Loveletters of Dr. Benjamin Rush to Julia Stockton. New York: N. Watson Academic Publications, 1979.
  • ———. The New Method of Inoculating for the Small-pox: Delivered in a Lecture in the University of Pennsylvania, on the 20th of February 1781. The third edition. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by Parry Hall, 1792.
  • ———. Observations Upon the Origin of the Malignant Bilious, or Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, and Upon the Means of Preventing It: Addressed to the Citizens of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Printed by Budd and Bartram, for Thomas Dobson, at the stone house, No. 41, south Second Street, 1799.
  • ———. A Plan for the Punishment of Crime; Two Essays. Edited by Negley K. Teeters. Philadlephia: Pennsylvania Prison Society, [1954].
  • ———. A Report of an Action for a Libel, Brought by Dr. Benjamin Rush, Against William Cobbett, In the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, December Term, 1799, for Certain Defamatory Publications in a News-paper, Entitled “Porcupine’s Gazette,” of which the Said William Cobbett was Editor. Philadelphia: Printed by W. W. Woodward, no. 17, Chesnut Street, 1800.
  • ———. A Second Address to the Citizens of Philadelphia, Containing Additional Proofs of the Domestic Origin of the Malignant Bilious, or Yellow Fever: To Which are Added, Observations, Intended to Shew [sic] That a Belief in that Opinion, is Calculated to Lessen the Mortality of the Disease, and to Prevent its Recurrence. Philadelphia: Printed by Budd and Bartram for Thomas Dobson, 1799.
  • ———. Sixteen Introductory Lectures. With an introduction by Lawrence A. May. 1811. Reprint, Oceanside, N.Y.: Dabor Science Publications, 1977.
  • ———. Two Essays on the Mind: An Enquiry into the Influence of Physical Causes Upon the Moral Faculty, and On the influence of Physical Causes in Promoting an Increase of the Strength and Activity of the Intellectual Faculties of Man. Introduction by Eric T. Carlson. New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1972.
  • ———. A Vindication of the Address, to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements, on the Slavery of the Negroes in America, In Answer to a Pamphlet Entitled, ”Slavery not forbidden by Scripture; or, A defence of the West-India planters from the aspersions thrown out against them by the author of the Address.” By a Pennsylvanian. Philadelphia: J. Dunlap, 1773.

Secondary Sources

  • Brodsky, Alyn. Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician (New York: Truman Talley, 2004)

External Links

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