Information AboutBenjamin Rush |
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Dr. Benjamin Rush ( December 24 , 1745 – April 19 , 1813 ) was a Founding Father of the United States . Rush lived in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania and was a Physician , Writer , Educator , and Humanitarian . He also was a signer of the Declaration Of Independence and attended the Continental Congress . Later in life, he became a Professor of 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 Slavery and 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 Reverend Samuel 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 Europe practicing medicine, he learned French , Italian , and Spanish . Returning to the 13 Colonies in 1769, Rush opened a medical practice in Philadelphia and became Professor of Chemistry at the College of Philadelphia. , c. 1818]] 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 Liberty and was elected to attend the provincial conference to send delegates to the Continental Congress . He consulted Thomas Paine on 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 Washington suffered 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. Rush later regretted his actions against Washington. In a letter to John Adams in 1812, Rush wrote, "He {Link without Title} was the highly favored instrument whose patriotism and name contributed greatly to the establishment of the independence of the United States." In 1783 he was appointed to the staff of Pennsylvania Hospital and 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 , 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 Bastille of Medical Sience. 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 Religiou Freedom." CORPS OF DISCOVERY In 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia to prepare for the Lewis And Clark Expedition under the tutelage of Benjamin Rush, who taught Lewis about Frontier Illness es, including how to perform Bloodletting . Rush provided the corps with a medical kit that included:
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 Archaeologist s trying to determine the corps' actual route to the Pacific. CONTROVERSIAL THEORIES Rush was an advocate of forced psychiatric treatment. According to historian of psychiatry Thomas Szasz , {Link without Title} 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. Benjamin Rush was also responsible for the invention of the idea of addiction. Prior to his work, drunkenness was viewed as being sinful, and a matter of choice. Rush introduced the idea that the alcoholic looses control over himself, identified the properties of alcohol, rather than the alcoholic's choice, as the causal agent, developed the conception of addiction as a form of medical disease, and finally developed the idea that abstinance is the only cure for addiction. He also wrote a descriptive account of the Yellow Fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia in 1793 (during which he treated up to 100 patients per day), and what is considered to be the first case report on Dengue (published in 1789 on a case from 1780). During his career, he educated over 3000 medical students, and several of these established Rush Medical College (Chicago) in his honor after his death. SOURCES Levine, Harry G. ''The Discovery of Addiction: Changing Conceptions of Habitual Drunkenness in America.''Italic text'''' Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 1978; 15: pp: 493-506. Also available at: http://www.soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/levine/doa.htm |
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