Benjamin Rush

Image:Benjamin Rush Painting by Peale 1783.jpg Dr. Benjamin Rush (December 24, 1745–April 19, 1813) was a Founding Fatherof the United States. Rush lived in the U.S. stateof Pennsylvaniaand was a physician, writer, educator, and humanitarian. He also was a signer of the Declaration of Independenceand attended the Continental Congress. Later in life, he became a professorof medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Despite having a wide influence on the development of American government, he is not as widely known as many of his American contemporaries. Rush was also an early opponent of slaveryand capital punishment.

Rush was born in Byberry, around 12 miles from Philadelphia. His father died when he was six, and Rush spent most of his early life with his maternal uncle, the ReverendSamuel Finley. He attended Samuel Finley's academy at Nottingham which would later become West Nottingham Academy. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree at the College of Philadelphia, and then obtained a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh. While in Europepracticing medicine, he learned French, Italian, and Spanish. Returning to the 13 coloniesin 1769, Rush opened a medical practice in Philadelphia and became Professor of Chemistry at the College of Philadelphia.

Image:Benjamin Rush Painting by Peale.jpg

He published the first American textbook on Chemistry, several volumes on medical student education, and wrote influential patriotic essays. He was active in the Sons of Libertyand was elected to attend the provincial conference to send delegates to the Continental Congress. He consulted Thomas Paineon the writing of the profoundly influential pro-independence pamphlet, Common Sense. He was appointed to represent Pennsylvania and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1777 he became surgeon-general of the middle department of the Continental Army. Conflicts with the Army Medical service, specifically with Dr. William Shippen, led to Rush's resignation.

As General George Washingtonsuffered a series of defeats in the war, Rush campaigned for his removal, as part of the Conway Cabal, losing his trust and ending Rush's war activities.

In 1783 he was appointed to the staff of Pennsylvania Hospitaland remained a member of the hospital's staff until his death.

He was elected to the Pennsylvania convention which adopted the Federal constitution, and was appointed treasurer of the U.S. Mint, serving from 1797-1813.

He became Professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvaniain 1791, though the quality of his medicine was quite primitive even for the time: he advocated bleeding (for almost any illness) long after its practice had declined. He became a social activist, an abolitionist, and was the most well-known physician in America at the time of his death. He was also founder of the private liberal arts college Dickinson College, in Carlisle, PA.

Constitutional Ideas

Rush believed that Americans should enshrine the right to medical freedom in their Constitution, much as the right to freedom of religion is expressly guaranteed in that document.

Rush is reported to have argued that "Unless we put Medical Freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship. . . to restrict the art of healing to one class of men, and deny equal privilege to others, will be to constitute the Bastilleof Medical Science. All such laws are un-American and despotic, and have no place in a Republic ... The Constitution of this Republic should make special privilege for Medical Freedom as well as Religious Freedom."

Corps of Discovery

In 1803, Thomas Jeffersonsent Meriwether Lewisto Philadelphiato prepare for the Lewis and Clark Expeditionunder the tutelage of Benjamin Rush, who taught Lewis about frontierillnesses, including how to perform bloodletting. Rush provided the corps with a medical kit that included:

• Turkishopiumfor nervousness,
• emeticsto induce vomiting,
• medicinalwineand
• fifty dozen of Dr. Rush's Bilious Pills.

These pills were laxatives made of more than 50% mercury, which the corps called "thunderclappers". Their meat-rich diet and lack of clean water during the expedition gave the men cause to use the pills frequently. The pills' efficacy is questionable, but the high mercury content provided an excellent tracer for archaeologiststrying to determine the corps' actual route to the Pacific.

Religious views and vision

The general consensus of Rush's religious are that he was a Christian. He was an advocate for Christianty in public life and school.

• "Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write - - - (and a)bove all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education - -" (wrote this when he proposed his plan for public education in America on March 28, 1787.)

• "It is now several months since I promised to give you my reasons for preferring the Bible as a schoolbook to all other compositions. Before I state my arguments, I shall assume the five following propositions:

That Christianity is the only true and perfect religion; and that in proportion as mankind adopts its principles and obeys its precepts they will be wise and happy.

That a better knowledge of this religion is to be acquired by reading the Bible than in any other way.

That the Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.

That knowledge is most durable, and religious instruction most useful, when imparted in early life.

That the Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life.

My arguments in favor of the use of the Bible as a schoolbook are founded" (In 1791 he wrote a pamphlet entitled 'A Defense of the Use of the Bible as a Schoolbook'.

Controversial theories

Rush was an advocate of forced psychiatric treatment. According to historian of psychiatry Thomas Szasz, [1]one of Rush's favorite methods of treatment was to tie a patient to a board and spin it at a rapid speed until all the blood went to the head. He placed his own son in one of his hospitals for 27 years, until he died. Rush also believed that being black was a hereditary illness which he referred to as 'negroidism'.

Contributions to Medicine

Rush was far ahead of his time in the treatment of mental illness. In fact, he is considered the "Father of American Psychiatry", publishing the first textbook on the subject in the United States, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind (1812). The emblem of the American Psychiatric Association bears his portrait. He also wrote a descriptive account of the yellow feverepidemic that struck Philadelphia in 1793, during which he treated up to 100 patients per day. During his career, he educated over 3000 medical students, and several of these established Rush Medical College (Chicago) in his honor after his death.

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