Benjamin Rush: Psychiatrist, Physician, and Social Reformer

BENJAMIN RUSH: PSYCHIATRIST, PHYSICIAN, AND SOCIAL REFORMER ILZA VEITH* The question of how many physicians were among the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence has never been settled. However, numerous studies have set the number at five. According to George Gifford 's careful research, they wereJosiah Bartlett and Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire, Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut, Lyman Hall ofGeorgia , and, above all, Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania [I]. Two additional names preceded by the title of doctor appear among the signatories. They had doctoral degrees indeed, but they were not physicians. These two other signers who were usually addressed as "Doctor " were Benjamin Franklin and John Witherspoon. The latter was a clergyman and had acquired his doctorate in theology; and Benjamin Franklin had been awarded an honorary degree at age 53 by the University of Saint Andrew in Scotland and had ever since been addressed as Doctor Franklin. Although Franklin was not a graduate of a medical school and never called himself a physician, he was deeply interested in medical matters and is said to have invented indispensable medical instruments, such as the flexible catheter and bifocal lenses. Franklin was elected president of the Pennsylvania Hospital, a position that he filled with great interest and reliability. Indeed, he became so well known for his interest in medical matters that he was elected to membership by the prestigious medical societies of London, Paris, and Edinburgh. Physician Benjamin Rush, whose life spanned the period 1745-1813, was the most important medical figure of the American Revolutionary period. Adapted from the Benjamin Rush Award Lecture, American Psychiatric Association, May 12, 1987. ?Professor emeritus, Department of the History of Health Sciences and the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco. Address: 2235 Centro East, Tibur ón, California 94920.© 1989 by The University of Chicago. AU rights reserved. 003 1-5982/89/3204-0656$01 .00 526 I Ilza Veith ¦ Benjamin Rush The first American to attain medical prominence, he pioneered in medical education in the New World and fought for reforms in teaching and in treatment of the insane. He was a productive medical writer and a master of clear, graceful expression. He wrote a number of important books, including his Account of the Bilious Remitting Fever as It Appeared in the City ofPhiladelphia in the Year 1793 [2]. The book was based on his experience in treating more than 100 yellow fever patients daily—until he himself became a victim of the disease. He also translated into English and annotated the Latin works of Sydenham, the famous English clinician of the previous century. But Rush's medical activities were matched by his equally varied political interests and his crusading zeal for social and government reforms. Some of the movements he promoted were radical for their time and caused him some temporary loss of standing. His family background and youth hardly pointed to his exciting life. He was born on his father's farm near Philadelphia in 1745 and was brought up a Quaker. His father and grandfather had been gunsmiths as well as farmers. Benjamin Rush must have been a brilliant as well as an industrious student, for he graduated from Princeton at the age of 15. Rush began his medical education as an apprentice for 6 years under a well-known Philadelphia physician, Dr. John Redman. Although this apprenticeship would have qualified him to practice medicine in the American colonies, his desire for a more formal medical education led him to Edinburgh, where he received his M.D. degree in 1767, and subsequently to London. A tour of medical establishments in continental Europe, particularly in France, concluded the most complete medical training then available. Immediately upon his return to Philadelphia in 1769, Dr. Rush accepted the professorship of medicine offered by the College of Philadelphia . When the college became part of the University of Pennsylvania, he retained this position. He also became a very successful practitioner and might well have confined his energies to the practice and teaching of medicine. Political Reformer The American Revolution, however, provided him with his first "cause." Before the outbreak of hostilities, he took part in the political developments and became a member of the...