The Friends of Poquessing Watershed Inc.  of Philadelphia and Bucks County
Dedicated to the Conservation and Beautification of the Poquessing Creek and Its Environs

Mirth, and even cheerfulness, when employed as remedies in low spirits, are like hot water to a frozen limb
        --- Dr. Benjamin Rush

     Benjamin Rush was born in Byberry, Pennsylvania (the Rush homestead was located near the present intersection of Red Lion Road and Keswick Road in Northeast Philadelphia) on December 24, 1745. His father was a farmer and gunsmith and Benjamin was the fourth of seven children. His father died when Benjamin was 6 and  his mother supported her family by running a grocery shop in Philadelphia. He attended West Nottingham Academy in Rising Sun, Maryland for 5 years, and in 1759, was admitted to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) as a junior. In 1760, at age 14, he became the youngest graduate ever of Princeton, which then had a 5 year curriculum and required fluency in both Latin and Greek.

     In 1761, he became an apprentice to Dr. John Redman, a Philadelphia physician and attended the first anatomical lectures in this country, given by Dr. John Morgan and Dr. William Shippen, Jr. at the College of Philadelphia. In 1766, he departed for Edinburgh University, and received his medical degree there in 1768. He returned to Philadelphia, where he became the first professor of chemistry in America, at the College of Philadelphia, and wrote the first American chemistry textbook. In 1791, the college became the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Rush was appointed professor of the institutes and practice of medicine, and of clinical practice, in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1796, he was also appointed professor in the practice of physic.

    In addition to teaching, Dr. Rush built up a large public medical practice, and became involved in the politics of the time. He spoke his mind freely on the issues of the day and published writings supporting  issues as diverse as the abolition of slavery and capital punishment, free public schools, religion in schools, education for women, temperance, tobacco, patriotism, a Peace Office, and the U.S. Constitution. He helped found the first antislavery society in America. Among his friends were several names we all know: Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. He urged Thomas Paine to write Common Sense , a tract promoting American independence, and supplied the title.

    In 1776, he was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1777, he was  appointed Surgeon General of the Continental Army. Unhappy with the Army hospitals, he complained to General Washington, accusing his superior of maladministration. His complaint was referred to Congress, which found it unjustified, and he resigned. He lost confidence in Washington, and briefly supported a group who attempted to replace him, but later regretted his action, and resumed support of Washington.
 

Rush returned to Philadelphia and resumed his medical practice and teaching. He became one of the best known teachers in the country and trained over three thousand students in his lifetime. He studied and incorporated agriculture, botany, chemistry, and veterinary science into his teachings and medical practice.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dr. Rush treated over 100 patients a day during the yellow fever epidemics in Philadelphia, and his account of the epidemic of 1793 won him international recognition. Unfortunately, Rush's views on illness left a lot to be desired. He felt that all diseases stemmed from fever and favored bloodletting and purging as treatment, and was frequently criticized by his peers for using these treatments. He was, however, one of the first physicians to use a form of inoculation to prevent some diseases, and to advocate sanitation and quarantine to prevent their spread.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

    Rush's major contribution to medicine lay in his work with the mentally ill at Pennsylvania Hospital. He was far ahead of his time in his belief that all mental illnesses, including alcoholism, were due to physical causes. He promoted humane treatment of the insane, and published the first American psychiatric textbook,  Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind in 1812. Due to his pioneering work in the field of psychiatry,  he is known as the "Father of American Psychiatry".
Rush also founded the Philadelphia Dispensary, the first free clinic for the poor.  He served as the first President of the Philadelphia Medical Society. He was also a founder of  Dickinson College,  the Philadelphia Bible Society, the Philadelphia College of Physicians, and one of the charter trustees of Franklin College (later Franklin and Marshall). In 1787, he was a member of the Convention of Pennsylvania for Adoption of the Federal Constitution. In 1797, John Adams appointed him Treasurer of the U.S. Mint, and he held this position until his death.

    In 1813, Dr. Benjamin Rush died during a typhus epidemic. He was buried in the burial grounds of the Christ Church in Philadelphia. 

"I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the Union of the United States in its form and adoption is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament."

Source: To Elias Boudinot on July 9, 1788. Letters of Benjamin Rush, L. H. Butterfield, ed., (Princeton, NJ: American Philosophical; Society, 1951), Vol. I, p. 475.

September 23, 1800 - In the midst of a yellow-fever epidemic, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following letter to Benjamin Rush, who was living in Philadelphia:
"I have to...congratulate you on the healthiness of your city. Still Baltimore, Norfolk and Providence admonish us that we are not clear of our new scourge. When great evils happen I am in the habit of looking out for what good may arise from them as consolations to us, and Providence has in fact so established the order of things, as that most evils are the means of producing some good. The yellow fever will discourage the growth of great cities in our nation, and I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts, but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere, and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice." (Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Benjamin Rush, dated September 23, 1800)

October 6, 1800 - In his reply to Thomas Jefferson's letter about "Cities," Benjamin Rush wrote the following to Jefferson:
"I agree with you in your opinion of cities. Cowper the poet very happily expresses our ideas of them compared with the country. 'God made the country - - man made cities.' I consider them in the same light that I do abscesses on the human body, viz., as reservoirs of all the impurities of a community." (Benjamin Rush, in a reply letter to Thomas Jefferson, dated October 6, 1800)
 
 
 

 More information about the life of Dr. Benjamin Rush, his writings and accomplishments can be found at the links below:
 

  Colonial Hall: A Look at America's Founders : A fascinating Rush biography with an excellent description of Rush's treatment of yellow fever.

In Engines of Ingenuity, Episode #739 ,  John Lienhard at The University of Houston gives us some insight into how the great mind of Dr. Benjamin Rush worked.

Benjamin Rush advocated a Peace Office to complement the War Office. Two hundred years later, Congress agreed with him.

Religion in public schools? Here's what Benjamin Rush had to say about it.

 "Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic" by Dr. Benjamin Rush

"Thoughts Upon Female Education"  by Dr. Benjamin Rush   Excerpt: " I know that the elevation of the female mind, by means of moral, physical and religious truth, is considered by some men as unfriendly to the domestic character of a woman. But this is the prejudice of little minds, and springs from the same spirit which opposes the general diffusion of knowledge among the citizens of our republics."     

Here are some Creative Quotations by Dr. Benjamin Rush.

Look here for a list of books on Benjamin Rush at the Byberry Friends Meetinghouse Library.
  
Destroying Angel: Benjamin Rush, Yellow Fever and the Birth of Modern Medicine  - An on-line book by Bob Arnebeck with companion essays and primary documents

Portrait of Benjamin Rush by Charles Willson Peale