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AN 
 
 EULOGIUM 
 
 IN MEMORY 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, 
 
 Professor of the Institutes anil Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Practice in the 
 . University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 DELIVERED AND PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE GRADUATES 
 AND STUDENTS OF MEDICINE IN SAID UNIVERSITY, 
 
 In the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, on Thursday, 
 the 8th of July, 1813, 
 
 JLIAM STAUGHTON, D. D. 
 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 'UBUSHED BY RERUEST OF THE GRADUATES. 
 
 1813. 
 
TO THE REV. DR. STAUGHTON. 
 
 Sir, 
 Permit us in the name of the late Graduates and Students of the 
 University of Pennsylvania, to tender our grateful thanks to you, for 
 your appropriate, learned and eloquent Eulogium, to the revered 
 memory of our late Professor Dr. Benjamin Rush, and to request a 
 copy for publication. 
 
 JOHN CROGHAN, 
 JOHN S. HARDAWAY, 
 
 EDWARD BRUX, V Committee of Arrangement. 
 
 N. NANCREDE, 
 JOHN F. WATERH( 
 Philadelphia, July 8th, 1813. 
 
 -X 
 
 i 
 
EULOGIUM, &c. 
 
 I RISE, at the request of the graduates and students 
 in medicine, of the University of Pennsylvania, to 
 offer a tribute, defective I fear, but sincere and re- 
 spectful, to the talents and character of the late Pro- 
 fessor Rush. 
 
 It has been no inconsiderable part of the wisdom 
 of nations, by grateful monuments to honour the 
 memory of men who have promoted the public good. 
 The harps of minstrels, the chisel of the statuary, the 
 pencil of the artist, the bold designs of the architect, 
 the votes of senates and the eloquence of orators 
 have been charged with the sacred service. Eulogy 
 has doubtless in some nations and instances swelled 
 itself into extravagance and crime. Divine honours 
 were never the desert of mortals, and to them were 
 never tendered, without an insult on the perfections of 
 the infinite Creator. And yet, statesmen and generals, 
 philosophers and physicians have been deified; not 
 simply in the licentious effusions of the poet, but by 
 the erection of temples and altars, the imposition of 
 victims, and the offering of prayers. With this folly 
 Socrates himself is chargeable, who, a little before his 
 dissolution, enjoined Crito to exonerate him of a vow, 
 by offering a cock to /Esculapius. Egypt was the 
 
mother, and Greece and Rome the adopters of this 
 irreverence to the Supreme. 
 
 The encomiast has, moreover, sometimes so de- 
 graded himself and his office, as to have ascribed high 
 virtues, and presented garlands of renown to men 
 whose career has been the curse, and whose decease 
 the relief of mankind. Infamy itself has sometimes 
 audaciously bound on its forehead, the frontlet of 
 honour. " Had we no other historians of the Roman 
 " emperors," says Mr. Addison, " but those we find 
 " on their money, we should take them for the most 
 " virtuous race of princes mankind were ever blessed 
 " with; whereas, if we look into their lives, they ap- 
 " pear, many of them, such monsters of lust and 
 " cruelty, as are almost a reproach to human nature. 
 " Tiberius, on his coins, is all mercy and moderation; 
 " Caligula and Nero, are fathers of their country; 
 " Galba, the patron of public liberty, and Vitellius, 
 " the restorer of the city of Rome. In short, if you 
 " have a mind to see the religious Commodus, the 
 " pious Caracalla, and the devout Heliogabalus, you 
 " may find them in the inscription or device of their 
 4< medals." 
 
 The abuse of panegyric offers no argument against 
 its propriety and usefulness. Encomiums may be pro- 
 nounced without derogating from the glory of Jehovah. 
 Counterfeit circulation only enhances the value of 
 genuine coin, as does a mischievous empyricism the 
 worth of medical science. Under the inspiration of his 
 God, David delivered his eulogium on the death of 
 Jonathan and Saul. He describes them as " swifter 
 " than eagles and stronger than lions." Who can be 
 
insensible to the generosity and delicacy of his heart, 
 when he exclaims, " Ye daughters of Israel, weep 
 " over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other de- 
 " lights. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of 
 " the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thy high 
 " places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jona- 
 " than: very pleasant hast thou been to me!" 
 
 The frequent acquaintance, as he drops the guileless 
 tear on the grave of the amiable Rush, shall involun- 
 tarily cry, " very pleasant hast thou been to me." 
 
 Many of the fathers of the christian church by their 
 example, sanction attempts to display and immortalize 
 virtuous character. The funeral orations of Eusebius 
 on Constantine, of Nazianzen on Basil and Caesarius, 
 and those of Ambrose on Valentinian and Theodosius. 
 with others of a similar nature, the world possesses. 
 
 " Great men," says Rollin, " are the property of a 
 " republic." Admit they are such — a republic has a 
 debt of gratitude to discharge. The pleasures of a 
 good conscience, and the approbation of God, are 
 paramount to all other retribution; yet the citizen, 
 whose life is consecrated to the good of a community, 
 deduces an inexpressible pleasure from the hope that 
 his memory after death will be grateful to those 
 whom while living he laboriously served. When the 
 magistrates of Larnpascum, the place of the residence 
 of Anaximander, inquired in what way they should 
 honour his name, his wish, alike modest and senti- 
 mental, was that the boys might have leave to play on 
 the anniversary of his decease. The mind that is dead 
 to the veneration of posterity, scarce ever deserves it. 
 Eulogy, the meed of merit, is soothing to the grief of 
 
surviving relatives, it calls into action the most manly 
 affections of the heart, it gives tone and fire to youthful 
 ardour, and makes us, in spite of conscious incapacity 
 and indolence, aspire to become the sublime we draw. 
 Suspect me not of the temerity of attempting the full 
 length portrait of Dr. Rush. I offer only a few out- 
 lines, and give shadow but to an eye or a hand. The 
 thought consoles me, that for near half a century Phi- 
 ladelphia has been contemplating the fair original. 
 
 It was the predicted and is the unequalled privi- 
 lege of the Jew, to be able to trace back his peculiar 
 lineage for more than three thousand years. Except- 
 ing in the idle genealogy of nobles and sovereigns, 
 men for the most part having recognized a second or 
 third degree of descent, totally lose sight of ancestry 
 until they arrive at Adam, the progenitor of us all. 
 More remotely than is usual, we are happy in being 
 able to discover the parentage of Dr. Benjamin Rush. 
 His ancebtor, who first came to America, was Cap- 
 tain John Rush. He landed in Pennsylvania in 1683, 
 and settled at Byberry, thirteen miles from Philadel- 
 phia. It may gratify curiosity to learn, that he was an 
 inflexible republican. He was personally known to 
 Oliver Cromwell, and in his army, with distinguished 
 reputation, commanded a troop of horse. One day, see- 
 ing his mare come into the camp without him, Crom- 
 well supposed he had been killed, and lamented him, by 
 saying, " he has not left a better officer behind him." 
 His sword, his watch and his bible are in possession of 
 the family. He died at his plantation, in 1699. His age 
 was about 80. He was the parent of ten children. Him- 
 
self and family became members of the Baptist society. 
 Elizabeth his eldest daughter arrived with her hus- 
 band in Pennsylvania, in 1682, having crossed the 
 ocean in the same ship with the celebrated William 
 Penn. They settled in By berry, on five hundred acres 
 of land. William, the Captain's eldest son, died in 
 By berry in 1688, five years after his arrival in Ame- 
 rica. James, the senior son of William, was " an in- 
 " genious, active, worthy man, and so exact in busi- 
 " ness, that when he died, (which was in the year 
 " 1727,) he did not leave a single debt behind him." 
 He was buried in his family grave-yard, near his 
 house. On his head-stone, the artless but impressive 
 lines are still legible, 
 
 I've try'd the strength of death at length, 
 
 And here lie under ground; 
 But I shall rise above the skies, 
 
 When the last trump shall sound. 
 
 John Rush, the honoured father of our deceased friend, 
 was the oldest son of James. He was a man of a meek 
 and peaceable spirit, and so just in his intercourse 
 with the world, that it was said of him by a neighbour, 
 " more could not be uttered in favour of a man's in- 
 " tegrity than that he was as honest as John Rush." 
 He died July 26, 1751, in this city, and lies buried in 
 Christ church grave-yard. " Let me be buried by his 
 " side, (said his amiable widow on her death-bed,) he 
 " was an angel to me while he lived." 
 
 And such to thee, thou faithful relict of the dead! 
 thou daughter of grief! was THY Rush. May the 
 
God of angels sustain thee, and the recollection be 
 cherished, that « smitten friends" continue angels still 
 The 24th of December, 1745, old style.L the 
 bn-th-day of the deceased Professor. He was born on 
 handsome farm of one hundred acres, lying on Poques- 
 .on Creek, m Bybcrry. The anxious care of his excel- 
 
 school of the Rev. Dr. Samue. Finley, i„ Maryland, 
 on the border of Pennsylvania: a gentleman whose 
 talents were em.nent, and whose death was a delight- 
 ful scene of Christian exultation; a scene which b V 
 a master's hand, Dr. Mason has contrasted with the 
 frivolous exit of Mr. Hume. Within these walls his 
 remains are sleeping, in hope of a joyful resurrection. 
 With the history of young Rush, during his early 
 pupilage, our acquaintance is inconsiderable We 
 know not if "foremost" 'twas his joy 
 
 to cleave 
 
 With pliant arms the glassy wave, 
 
 To chase the rolling circle's speed 
 
 Or urge the flying ball! 
 
 Under the tuition of Dr. Finley he continued, until in 
 the year 1759, he entered Nassau Hall, at Princeton. 
 Yes! Nassau Hall, thou alma mater of many of the most 
 distinguished civilians and patriots, physicians and di- 
 vines, over whom America has rejoiced-iWz w 
 thy son! The institution was at this time under the 
 care of the pious and eloquent President Davies. The 
 powers of the pupil began how to frondesce and 
 blossom. Goldsmith used to say he never was parti- 
 cularly attached to the belles lettres till thirty. The 
 
taste of Rush was charmed and his judgment ripened 
 by the beauty and splendours of fine writing at fifteen. 
 He attempted composition, and was astonished to find 
 his efforts succeeded with the universal gratulations of 
 those whom it was an honour to please. At such suc- 
 cess, to use the words of Dr. Young, the juvenile 
 composer usually " starts as at a meteor in the night; 
 " he is much surprized, he can scarcely believe it true, 
 " During this happy confusion, it may be said to him 
 " as to Eve at the lake, 
 
 " What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself!" 
 
 His approving preceptor, a model of oratory, found 
 occasion often to say in substance as did Erasmus of 
 Melanchton, " What hopes may we not entertain of 
 " one, who though as yet very young and almost a 
 " boy, is equally to be admired for his knowledge of 
 " both languages? what quickness of invention! what 
 " purity of diction! what powers of memory! what 
 " variety of reading — what modesty and gracefulness 
 " of behaviour." We look with interest on the rili 
 whose continuous current promises to exhibit a Dela- 
 ware or an Amazon. 
 
 On his beginning to discover some talent for pub- 
 lic speaking, his friends recommended, and his heart 
 began to approve, the study of the law. The dissua- 
 sions of Dr. Finley were successful in diverting him 
 from the project of legal enterprise to medical pur- 
 suits. To serve with reputation, his country, at the 
 bar, and on the bench, was reserved for the Hon. 
 Jacob Rush, his younger brother. In the fall of 1760 
 he received the degree of batchelor in the arts, and 
 R 
 
10 
 
 commenced the study of medicine under the direction 
 of the late Dr. John Redman, of this city. So intense 
 was his application, that during the six years which 
 he spent in the family of his beloved instructor, he was 
 absent only two days from his business. Juvat ipse 
 labor: toil itself was pleasure. In the August of 1766, 
 he left his natal shores, and visited Great Britain, with 
 the view of completing his medical course. Two 
 years afterwards, in the university of Edinburgh, a 
 school of medicine, which in Europe has long been 
 without a rival, Dr. Robertson, the historian, Dr. 
 Cullen, Dr. Gregory, and Dr. Black, presented him 
 his medical diploma. The subject of his thesis was 
 the Digestio?! of Foods. While yet a student at Edin- 
 burgh, the American society for promoting useful 
 knowledge, evinced its sagacity in the detection of 
 forming talent by electing him a member. 
 
 Edinburgh tendered him the freedom of the city, 
 and he was chosen an associate of its revolution club. 
 
 He passed the winter, succeeding his graduation, in 
 London. His mind was now like the fertile vernal 
 glebe, delicately sensible to every zephyr and every 
 ray, and disposed to repay, with its own increase, the 
 influence it enjoyed. The following spring he visited 
 Paris, and from thence, in the summer, recrossed the 
 Atlantic, to consecrate the first fruits of his acquisi- 
 tions and talents to the service of his native country. 
 His country was not slow in appreciating his merits. 
 He fixed on Philadelphia as his residence. His prac- 
 tice, as is common with young adventurers in medi- 
 cine, was, for a short time, at first laborious and almost 
 without compensation. But the encouragement of- 
 
11 
 
 fered him by an eminent divine of this city, he soon 
 realized, " Be thou faithful over a few things, and I 
 " will make thee ruler over many." He was soon 
 called into the abodes of wealth and character, and 
 enrolled for life physician of themselves and their 
 offspring. He ascended the chair of Professor of 
 Chemistry in the college of Philadelphia, by the 
 unanimous vote of its curators as early as the month 
 of August, 1769. His name rose like the sun, and 
 soon began to be pronounced with respect in every 
 circle of science and medicine in the colonies of 
 America and in Europe. In 1772 he was elected 
 member of the London society for the encouragement 
 of arts and manufactures. He solicited, and in the 
 year 1776, a year by America never to be forgotten, 
 received the hand of Miss Julia Stockton, of Prince- 
 ton, New Jersey; a lady every way suited to be the 
 wife of a Rush. Her tenderness, her wisdom, her pru- 
 dence, her piety ministered solace to his sorrows, in- 
 formation to his counsels, dignity to domestic arrange- 
 ment, and ardour to his devotions. In 1777, he received 
 the appointment of physician general of the American 
 army, which office the ensuing year he resigned. He 
 succeeded Dr. Morgan in the chair of the theory and 
 practice of physic in the college of Philadelphia, in 
 the year 1789. On the consolidation of this institu- 
 tion with the university, four years after, he occupied 
 the chair of professor of the institutes of medicine 
 and clinical practice, and only at the call of death 
 resigned it. 
 
 Yes, death has called, and Rush has obeyed the man- 
 date. For the circumstances of his dissolution, the 
 
12 
 
 public are indebted to the enlightened detail of Dr. 
 Dorsey. " During the last year or two of his life, a 
 " cough, which he familiarly called his tussis senilis, 
 " increased very considerably. Having in early life, 
 " suffered severely from some pulmonary symptoms, 
 " which were thought to wear a consumptive aspect, 
 " he never believed that he should live to be old. 
 " After visiting his patients as usual, on Wednesday, 
 " the 14th of April, after tea, in the evening, he was 
 " attacked with a violent chill, which was relieved 
 " by some brandy and water. In the night he awoke 
 " with a very severe pain in the side, attended with 
 " great difficulty in breathing. He sent for a bleeder, 
 " and ordered him to take eight or ten ounces of 
 " blood from his arm. After losing the blood he was 
 " relieved and slept. A medical friend was requested 
 " to visit him the next morning; finding him weak 
 " and exhausted, he administered some wine-whey, 
 " which was evidently beneficial. His pulse, how- 
 il ever, became gradually weaker, and his symptoms 
 " soon assumed the prevailing typhus diathesis. Sti- 
 " mulating remedies were administered by his phy- 
 ; ' sicians to as great an extent as the stomach would 
 " bear, and external irritation kept up, but with- 
 " out effect. About five o'clock in the afternoon of 
 " the 19th of April, perfectly rational, and expect- 
 " ing with the utmost composure his approaching 
 " dissolution, he expired." His age sixty-eight years 
 and three months. The bells, with muffled tongue, 
 tolled not the tidings of his death. He had forbidden 
 them. He had seen in his practice ill effects result to 
 his patients from the intelligence they have conveyed. 
 
and wished as to himself, that testimonies of personal 
 respect should be sacrificed to public good. Our friend 
 is gone. No more shall we hear his luminous and ora- 
 cular instructions, in the parlour circle, or from the 
 Professor's chair. The eye of intelligence has lost its 
 brightness. The furrowed cheek offers its channels no 
 longer to the tears of sympathy. The whitened locks 
 engage our reverence no more. Death has changed 
 the countenance, and the meek light of wisdom it ex- 
 hibited has vanished. A minister of health, no more 
 shall we see him rolling through our streets in his 
 plain vehicle, the faithful African at his side. No more 
 shall he dispel the gloom from the chambers of dis- 
 ease, hear the blessings of convalescents, or alleviate 
 the struggles of expiring life. His loved habitation, 
 the temples of devotion, welcome his footsteps no 
 more. 
 
 He has lived for his country, and in a special degree, 
 citizens of Philadelphia, he has lived for you. The 
 consciousness of your loss and your gratitude for his 
 toils, you have evinced by that general sadness which 
 overspread the city, when report announced Br. Rush 
 is dead. From crouded windows and streets as to the 
 church yard his remains were borne, the countenances 
 of thousands had, in common with those of the long 
 procession of divines, physicians, philosophers, mer- 
 chants and tradesmen, but one expression. To have 
 given utterance to the universal feeling, you need onlv 
 have exclaimed, our father ', our friend is no ?nore!* 
 
 • I am happy in being able to state, that he has left his own 
 life in writing, which I trust before long the public will possess, 
 
14 
 
 Permit me the pleasure of placing before you, in 
 different lights, the character of this distinguished 
 man. View him as a scholar, a philosopher, a patriot, 
 a physician, a christian. 
 
 The attainments of Rush, while a student, were 
 highly respectable. His facility in acquiring languages 
 was great. With the Latin, Greek, French, Italian and 
 Spanish, he was familiar. His quotations from the 
 Roman classics, with which his conversation in the 
 company of the learned was embellished, were apt and 
 beautiful: offered with an easy grace and timely pro- 
 priety, they were " apples of gold in pictures of silver." 
 His favourite author was Tacitus. A volume of his 
 works he usually carried with him, and improved by- 
 reading him the leisure that the interval of a few 
 minutes before he could enter the room of a patient 
 would offer. Of the writings of this " elegant and en- 
 lightened" author, as he denominates him, he has 
 made frequent use, particularly in his " account of the 
 German inhabitants of Pennsylvania." It has been 
 objected against the deceased professor, that he was 
 unfriendly to the acquirement of learned languages. 
 He certainly, like Pasor, considered some of the an- 
 cient classics as "unfavourable to morals and religion." 
 He objected to their being studied " too early in life," 
 and could not persuade himself that they were a 
 " necessary branch of liberal education." But he did 
 not contend for the extinction of a critical intimacy 
 with the elegancies of Athenian and Roman literature. 
 "Let them," he says, " like travelling, become a part 
 " of the luxury of education." He has met the argu- 
 ments usually adduced in favour of the dead languages. 
 
15 
 
 arising from their importance to a critical acquaintance 
 with our own, from the fine models of eloquence and 
 taste which they supply, from the consent of European 
 nations in making them the vehicle of their discoveries, 
 and from their importance in the learned professions. 
 If he has not obviated the force of these arguments, he 
 has at least discussed them with ingenuity and can- 
 dour. He seems to have contemplated classic learning 
 in the same light as did Horace a cluster of elegant 
 ideas. The grove, the altar of Diana, the meandering 
 of a current hurrying through the fields, the river 
 Rhine and the rainbow are beautiful, but in the in- 
 troduction to the poem, non erat his locus, there was 
 no room for these. Other branches of education more 
 profitable to the pursuits of mechanism and merchan- 
 dize, must inevitably be neglected where early years 
 are consumed in the study of Latin and Greek. He 
 considered human life too short, and the field of medi- 
 cine particularly, too extensive, to waste a long period 
 in attaining what could never be applied to practical 
 purposes. I offer these remarks with the design of 
 stating distinctly Dr. Rush's views. I profess not to 
 vindicate them: this he has done himself, and by all 
 who perceive their force, they will be adopted. Perhaps 
 Dr. Rush, in asserting that a sufficiency of classic 
 learning by a common capacity, may be acquired in a 
 year or two, as much undervalues the worth of this 
 species of literature, as Dr. Samuel Johnson and such 
 as have adopted his views, have erred in representing 
 it as inseparable from mental eminence. He considered 
 himself as writing for the profit of the youth of a 
 
16 
 
 young but growing republic. His aims were like his 
 patriotism, pure; and like his heart, benevolent. 
 
 His acquaintance with the sciences was general. If 
 into some his leisure and inclination had prevented his 
 wading deeper than to collect the pebble and the shell, 
 from the profound of others he brought up and ex- 
 hibited the pearl and the gem. His progress in uni- 
 versal knowledge was assisted greatly by his powers 
 of retention. What he had once inscribed on the tablet 
 of his memory was rarely effaced. It was one of the 
 aphorisms of Lord Bacon, " reading makes a full man, 
 writing a correct man, and speaking a ready man." 
 Dr. Rush was always full, correct, and ready. His 
 reading was extensive. He marked down every idea 
 that had any claim to originality, beauty, energy, or 
 usefulness. Few men ever collected from books and 
 life, so large a body of literary and medicinal anec- 
 dotes and facts as himself. His memoranda are a rich 
 museum. His penetration could detect the gold in its 
 ore, and discover mines where thousands saw only 
 desart. Sometimes he had recourse to what the rheto- 
 ricians call topical memory, and his recollection would 
 receive aid from a knot, or the fixing the eye for a few 
 moments on some object occurring frequently to his 
 senses: but the vigorous interest he felt in all his en- 
 gagements, and his correct arrangement of ideas in 
 his mind, rendered such auxiliaries not frequently 
 necessary. 
 
 The mind of Professor Rush was characterized by 
 a manly independence. In science, religion, and medi- 
 cine, he was an eclectic. His intellect was a Colum- 
 bus, mistaking sometimes the nature and extent of 
 
17 
 
 discovery, but delighting in voyage, calm, persevering 
 and successful. Longinus represents liberty as the 
 nurse of genius: genius does honour to its foster- 
 mother. With greater emphasis than Watts might 
 Rush have exclaimed: 
 
 Custom that tyranness of fools, 
 
 That leads the learned round the schools 
 
 In magic chains of forms and rules, 
 
 My genius storms her throne. 
 No more, ye slaves, with awe profound, 
 Beat the dull track nor dance the round, 
 Loose hands and quit the enchanted ground, 
 
 Knowledge invites us each alone. 
 
 The science of anatomy received no light from 
 Egyptian embalmers. Mt re action, without observa- 
 tion and inference, profits mankind but little. The 
 mind of the deceased was inquisitive and observant. 
 It delighted to educe theory from practice, as well as 
 to combine practice with theory. 
 
 We have stated that Dr. Rush was elected, while 
 yet a pupil at Edinburgh, a member of the American 
 Society for promoting useful knowledge. In June 
 1769, this society and the American Philosophical 
 Society effected a junction, under the name of the 
 American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia 
 for the promotion of useful knowledge. Of this in. 
 stitution he was chosen in 1770, a curator, and re- 
 peatedly held the vice-presidency. He regretted the 
 suspension of the meetings of the society by the re- 
 volutionary war; before and after which he was an 
 active member. In February, 1786, he pronounced 
 before the society an ingenious oration, entitled " an 
 
18 
 
 " enquiry into the influence of physical causes upon 
 " the moral faculty." He observes in the preface, that 
 if the facts and principles contained in the oration 
 " have the same operation upon the mind of the reader 
 " that they had upon the mind of the author, they will 
 " at first be doubted, afterwards believed, and finally 
 "they will be propagated." In the first Presbyterian 
 church in this city, in December, 1796, he delivered 
 an eulogium agreeably to appointment, intended to 
 perpetuate the memory of the late president of the 
 society, Dr. Rittenhouse. The society by its resolu- 
 tion, declared it " eloquent, learned, comprehensive 
 and just." One passage from the eulogium I cannot 
 deny myself the pleasure of quoting. " As a com- 
 " panion," Dr. Rittenhouse " instructed upon all sub- 
 '* jects. To his happy communicative disposition, I 
 " beg leave to express my obligations in this public 
 " manner. I ca;; truly say after an acquaintance with 
 " him for six and twenty years, that I never went into 
 " his company without learning something." My 
 acquaintance with Professor Rush has existed but 
 about seventeen years, but certainly I was never in his 
 company without learning something. I have heard 
 of several in our city who have known him forty or 
 fifty years, who have made a like observation. A mind 
 calm and contented is a perpetual feast to itself, but 
 how vast must the resources be of such minds as can 
 supply a continual intellectual feast to others. In con- 
 versation, whether familiar or philosophic, few were 
 his equals. His anecdotes were always happy, and his 
 allu ions and analogies delicate and striking. No man 
 could succeed in placing a thought in the most con- 
 
19 
 
 vincing and engaging light better than he. His fancy 
 was excursive, but his judgment sedate. One nation in 
 Et. rope is famed for invention, another for the appli- 
 cation of discoveries to useful purposes. The mind of 
 Rush was conspicuous for both. 
 
 The tumult of political life ill agrees with the silent 
 pursuits of science. But Dr. Rush was a patriot, a 
 decided whig. When he saw the interests of his be- 
 loved country endangered, he sprung into the lines of 
 the foremost to assert her rights. His early exertions, 
 his bold conceptions, the nervous effusions of his pen, 
 and the mild intelligence of his counsels assisted in 
 lifting the colonies of America into free and indepen- 
 dent states. He sat in congress in the year 1776, and 
 has enrolled his name on the sacred charter of Ameri- 
 can liberty. He was elected member of the state con- 
 vention for the adoption of the federal constitution. 
 Under his parent state he never held any office; and 
 under the general government was only treasurer of 
 the mint. The cause of freedom, and the universal 
 happiness of man, were dear to his inmost heart. He 
 exulted for joy as he beheld their approach, as exults 
 the Siberian on his loftiest mountain when after months 
 of darkness he first views the returning sun. America 
 shared his best affections, but he felt himself like Cato 
 born for the human race. 
 
 The niche in the temple of society which Professor 
 Rush was peculiarly destined to fill, was that of a 
 physician. Of this he was convinced, and to the science 
 of medicine he directed the forces of his mind. Other 
 studies were his visits, this was his home. His arm, 
 like that of /Esculapius on his coins, was bared for 
 
20 
 
 medical exertion. His practice was large, and his 
 labours Herculean; but notwithstanding his natural 
 constitution was feeble, and required perpetual vigi- 
 lance to preserve its tone, he so systematized his en- 
 gagements, as that by giving to each its hour, he could 
 fulfil the claims of all. His confidence in medical 
 remedies was strong. He would seldom despair of 
 cure or relief, until death tore the patient from his 
 superintendence. The very idea of incurable diseases 
 was abhorrent from his judgment and feelings. He 
 was of opinion, that for every disease the God of 
 mercy had provided a remedy, and that its non-dis- 
 covery argued only the imperfection of the healing 
 art. He anticipated a millenial day in which sickness 
 would yield to temperance and medicine, as certainly 
 as the shades of night to the radiance of morn. Such 
 benevolent sentiments were not the illusions of eccen- 
 tricity. He believed he was justified in his hopes by 
 the progress of medical knowledge, but his confidence 
 and zeal were animated and sustained, like, the heart of 
 Alexander, at Jerusalem, by the page of sacred pro- 
 phecy. 
 
 " Oh scenes surpassing fable, and yet true 
 
 " Scenes of accomplish'd bliss! which who can see 
 
 " Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 
 
 " His soul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy. 
 
 11 The creeping pestilence is driv'n away, 
 
 " The breath of heav'n has chas'd it. In the heart 
 
 " No passion touches a discordant string, 
 
 " But all is harmony and love. Disease 
 
 " Is not: the pure and uncontaminate blood 
 
 •' Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age." 
 
 Cowper 
 
21 
 
 In the chamber of sickness, the ease and elegance 
 of Dr. Rush's manners always created respect, while 
 his unaffected sympathy constrained age to love him 
 as a brother, and youth to rejoice in him as a parent. 
 He had always at hand some soothing observation de- 
 rived from his art as a physician, or his piety as a 
 saint, to cheer the bosom of his patient. The sufferer 
 almost forgot his pains, not with the horror which re- 
 moves tooth-ache in the presence of a dentist, but with 
 the pleasure which music supplies while it charms 
 away the tarantula's bite. He marked the origin and 
 progress of the diseases peculiar to his country, with 
 the eye of an eagle and with the reflection of a sage. 
 The pestilence, a visitation which the page of inspira- 
 tion sublimely denominates " death" with " hell," or 
 the grave in its retinue, he endeavoured to follow 
 through its dismal meanders, and has pointed you 
 to the ministers of heaven — the sky, the miasm, the 
 neglected dock, or unventilated ship that produced it. 
 When Philadelphia was stormed by this dread inva- 
 der, he was not merely a centinel at his post, but a 
 general in his ranks. He lost sight of his personal ex- 
 posure in his solicitude for the recovery of his suffer- 
 ing fellow citizens. His deliberate passion for the 
 public good, no derision of his remedies, no misre- 
 presentation of his principles could exterminate or 
 diminish. He felt and acted to the wide extent of his 
 capacity, as a disciple of that Son of man who came 
 not to destroy men's lives, but to save thtm. 
 
 In the chair of the Professor he appeared with pe- 
 culiar advantage; His lectures exhibited a system of 
 medicine that illumined the understanding of his 
 
22 
 
 pupils, and will secure the investigation, perhaps the 
 universal applause, of posterity. He decried nosology 
 only because persuaded of its mischiefs. He recom- 
 mended system and theory in medicine because he 
 conceived its first principles as really ascertained, as 
 are those of attraction and gravitation, the grand dis- 
 covery of Newton, in the natural world; and because 
 he saw the practice his theory suggested, expeditiously 
 and safely lessen the afflictions of depressed humanity. 
 It would ill become me, and certainly prove unavail- 
 ing, to state my ideas of the system he taught. The 
 world, and especially his country, have become fami- 
 liar with the terms he employs. He has thrown open 
 the volume of his ideas, and cheerfully left them to 
 the perusal of Time, who " overthrows the illusions of 
 opinion, but establishes the decisions of nature." 
 
 We have seen that in his juvenile exercises the 
 deceased discovered an attachment to oratory and 
 belles lettres. This talent, ripened, peculiarly fitted 
 him to become a public lecturer. He was greatly 
 charmed with the eloquence of Whitfield, and has 
 been thought, notwithstanding the compass of his 
 voice was more limited, to have acquired, I suspect 
 involuntarily, something of his emphasis and melodi- 
 ous tone. He always felt an interest in the sentiments 
 he delivered. He was master of the stroke that could 
 grave truth on the memory, or throw into vibration 
 all the strings of the heart. His last course of lectures 
 are supposed, by his class, to have been equal in ani- 
 mation and effect with any he ever delivered. 
 
 I can never forget the close of his lectures in the 
 spring of 1812. I quote merely from memory: "And 
 
23 
 
 " now gentlemen,'* said he, " I bid you farewell. For 
 " the first time this season I have met you with reluc- 
 " tance. Accept of my thanks for your respectful and 
 " orderly attention to the doctrines I have taught you. 
 " Happy should I have been to have invited you fre- 
 " quently through the winter to my family. I have 
 " no doubt I should have been edified and pleased 
 " with your company: but domestic affliction has pre- 
 " vented me." He would have gone on, but his coun- 
 tenance suddenly reddened, and the big tears fell from 
 his eyes. The class recollected the trying circum- 
 stances of a beloved son. Again he attempted to read 
 — he could not. His aged hand raised insensibly with 
 grief, fell heavy on the desk — he bowed to retire. 
 Some of the class attempted to express their feelings 
 by clapping, but they were not able. The emotion 
 was not to be uttered. Every youthful eye seemed 
 to say, venerable father, God Almighty be thy sup- 
 porter! 
 
 A more powerful touch of natural, unpremeditated, 
 and penetrating eloquence I never witnessed. — 
 
 Let it be remembered that Professor Rush owed 
 none of his eminence to the diminutiveness of the 
 talents of his associates. He was great in the midst of 
 greatness. In the medical department of an univer- 
 sity, where anatomy is made familiar by the prompt- 
 ness of nomenclature, the accuracy of demonstration 
 and the charms of physiology — where in surgery the 
 lectures exhibit an informing simplicity, and the knife 
 attempts with success every thing but miracle — where 
 the materia medica, botany, and natural history are 
 presented with the attractions which reading and judg- 
 
24 
 
 ment, genius and eloquence supply — where chemistry 
 and the remaining parts of a medical education are 
 taught with correctness, respectability and effect — 
 Dr. Rush maintained his elevation. Like a primal fixed 
 star, aniid the host of heaven, he shone with a lustre 
 wholly his own. 
 
 It is remarked by Bishop Newton that " all persons 
 " of any note and eminence bear a double character 
 " in the world." This is true in relation to men dis- 
 tinguished in medicine. Fable itself intimates the 
 thought. Medea was reported to have boiled men 
 alive, because she first recommended warm bathing. 
 The success of iEsculapius in healing disease, is 
 described as a crime sufficient to have incurred the 
 indignation of the gods. But dismissing fable, He- 
 rophiius, who first practiced the anatomical knife, 
 is called by Tertullian " medicus aut lanius." Galen, 
 on a visit to Rome, was stigmatized as a " theorist and 
 magician." Sydenham was charged with murdering his 
 patients by repeated and plentiful blood-letting, and 
 Harvey, for discovering the circulation of the blood, 
 lost his reputation and his practice. To state that Dr. 
 Rush met with opposition and persecution, is to place 
 him on the roll of his great predecessors. Had he been 
 less eminent or laborious he had suffered less. 
 
 His troubles were counterbalanced with public to- 
 kens of respect. In 1793, in testimony of his impor- 
 tant services during the yellow fever, the board of 
 health presented him an elegant piece of plate, with an 
 appropriate inscription. In 1805, he was addressed to 
 answer certain queries which the Prussian govern- 
 ment had ordered to be made on the subject of yellow 
 
25 
 
 fever; as a return he received from the king, a coro- 
 nation medal. The thanks of the king of Spain in 1806, 
 were tendered him for his answer to some queries on 
 the subject of the same disease. In 1807, from the 
 queen of Etruria, a tribute to his talents, he received 
 a gold medal. During the same year he became a 
 member of the National Institute, class of fine arts, at 
 Paris, and the year following a member of the Society 
 of the School of Physic there. In 1811 he received a 
 diamond ring from the Emperor of Russia, as a com- 
 pliment to his medical character. While distinguished 
 by these honours from abroad, at home he enjoyed the 
 respect and love of thousands. 
 
 In the temples of /Eseulapius tablets were hung up 
 recording the diseases which his skill and genius had 
 cured. Look up — behold the tablet containing the 
 cures of the great Philadelphia physician. 
 
 Read the testimony of a youth: 
 
 " 'Twas in the circle of the gay I stood, 
 " Death would have enter'd! Nature push'd him back, 
 ' Supported by a doctor of renown: 
 " His point he gain'd."* 
 
 See next the record of the poet: 
 
 " How late I shuddered on the brink of fatel 
 " That time is mine" O Rush! " to thee I owe; 
 " Fain would I pay thee with eternity!" 
 
 Here is the gratitude of age and weakness: 
 
 " Alive by miracle! or what is next, 
 
 " Alive" by Rush! " if I am still alive, 
 
 " Who long have buried what gives life to live: 
 
 " Firmness of nerve, and energy of thought." 
 
 • It is scarcely necessary to observe that I am quoting from 
 the Night Thoughts of Young. 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 Another but the record is too long. It is a re- 
 cord of nearly fifty years, and of thousands of cases; 
 we cannot go through it. The names of many of you 
 are there — mine is there. 
 
 Above his eminence as a physician rises his cha- 
 racter as a christian. It is observed by Dr. Lardner 
 that Galen has twice mentioned the name of Christ in 
 his treatise on the pulses; but how oft is this venerable 
 name mentioned, referred to, and magnified in the 
 publications and lectures of Dr. Rush. Convinced of 
 the truth of the scriptures, he endeavoured to give 
 them circulation. His defence of the use of the bible 
 as a school book, published at a time when infidelity 
 was preparing to condemn it to the flames, has been 
 of singular benefit to his country. He was one of the 
 first movers of the Bible Society of Philadelphia, draft- 
 ed its constitution, and continued a vice-president un- 
 til death. Aware of the sublime beauties recorded in 
 the bible, he made such judicious selections, and 
 offered such ingenious and pious expositions as im- 
 parted to all his friends information and delight. 
 
 His lectures acquired riches from the mines of in- 
 spiration, which never could have been collected from 
 any other source. It is not surprising that his touches 
 are found so exquisitely fine, he dipped his pencil in 
 the colours of heaven. Permit me to give you an ex- 
 ample of his familiar and devotional habit of illus- 
 trating the scripture. In Psalm iii. 5. the prophet 
 says, " I laid me down and slept, I awoke, for the 
 " Lord sustained me." " I laid me down," says our 
 expositor, " what thousands the last night, from 
 " affliction, could not lie down;" " I slept," " what 
 
27 
 
 " thousands have been strangers to sleep; " I awoke," 
 " how many have slept to wake no more. I owe my 
 " safety to this, ' thou, Lord, sustained me.' " I could 
 give you many interpretations of the sacred word, 
 which I have heard him give, equally affecting and 
 devout, with the specimen I have adduced. The 
 doctor had intended as an employment in life's decline 
 to have published a work which he meant to have 
 called, if my memory be correct, " the Medicine of 
 the Bible." He had read, and was justly dissatisfied 
 with Dr. Richard Mead's Medicina Sacra. He saw its 
 tendency to diminish respect for the sacred volume, 
 and lamented it. For his work, the doctor had made 
 considerable preparation, but his notes are too short 
 for any one but himself to have completed. He in- 
 tended to have shewn where cures were effected by 
 natural means, and where miracle must be admitted; 
 and to have demonstrated how much biblical physic 
 harmonizes with the most useful and correct ideas of 
 modern physicians. On his death- bed he expressed 
 his regret, that the work must fall. The world and 
 the church of God have to lament that the noble 
 design has failed. Equal talents and reading for such 
 a production will not easily be found. I have the hap- 
 piness to present you with a specimen of its intended 
 nature, from a letter with which the doctor honoured 
 me, dated May 5, 1804. The following is extract: 
 
 " New matter presses upon me every day I open 
 " the bible. In reading the book of Nehemiah, a few 
 " days ago, I was struck with the following passage: 
 " ' Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the 
 " wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes 
 
28 
 
 " waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.'' Long or 
 V distant walking always produces more or less swell- 
 " ing in the feet. It was universal in the American 
 " army during the revolutionary war, when new troops 
 " were marched to the camp. Bruce tells us his feet 
 " were not only swelled but ulcerated, in consequence 
 " of marching over the sands of Nubia. The exemp- 
 " tion of the Israelites from swelled feet over a moun- 
 " tainous and often a stony wilderness was of course 
 " as much a miracle as their clothes not waxing old." 
 
 " 1 shall trespass upon your time," he adds, " while 
 " I mention one more idea that has lately been sug- 
 " gested to me, in reading the Old Testament. 
 
 " The sight of a brazen serpent curing a disease 
 " brought on by the bite of a living serpent, which 
 " the former was made to resemble, is contrary to all 
 " the laws of association which regulate the feelings of 
 " the human mind, as far as they relate to health and 
 " pleasure. It ought rather to have increased the dis- 
 " ease it was prescribed to cure. Does not this suggest 
 " the influence of the cross upon the minds of men, to 
 " be contrary to all the natural and habitual disposi- 
 u tions of the human heart? what! but divine wisdom 
 " could have made the sight of a cross produce love, 
 " or a dead body produce life? No wonder this mira- 
 " culous process for curing the moral disorders of our 
 " world appeared to be foolishness to the wisest nation 
 " upon the face of the earth." 
 
 He subjoins, " I am encouraged to proceed in my 
 " inquiries, by recollecting a speech made to me by 
 " the late Rev. Mr. Marshall, of this city, on his death- 
 " bed. To a complaint I made of the unprofitable 
 
29 
 
 •' issue of my public labours, he replied, i Don't be 
 " discouraged, my dear friend, by the want of success 
 11 in your attempts to do good. Remember the Sa- 
 " viour of the world will say to his followers at the day 
 " of judgment, not well done thou successful, but thou 
 " faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
 " Lord.'" 
 
 Though the whole religious creed of Dr. Rush ac- 
 corded not entirely with that of any christian denomi- 
 nation, his cardinal opinions were altogether evangeli- 
 cal. His dependence for life eternal was on the atone- 
 ment of the Son of God. The memorials of the Sa- 
 viour's death he partook of in his chamber the day 
 before his decease. " The perfect morality of the gos- 
 " pel," he says, in a letter to Dr. Belknap, " rests 
 " upon a doctrine, which though often controverted* 
 1 has never been refuted, I mean the vicarious life and 
 " death of the Son of God. This sublime and ineffable 
 " doctrine delivers us from the absurd hypotheses of 
 " modern philosophers concerning the foundation of 
 " moral obligation and fixes it upon the self- moving 
 " principle of Love. The miraculous conception of 
 " the Saviour of the world by a virgin is not more 
 ** opposed to the ordinary course of events, nor is the 
 " doctrine of the atonement more above human reason 
 " than those moral precepts which command us to 
 " love our enemies, or to die for our friends." It is 
 unnecessary to tell you he uniformly lived the life of 
 a Christian. I will add, no minister of the word of 
 God ever found embarrassment in his approach to a 
 sick chamber where Professor Rush was physician. 
 
3& 
 
 Among the virtues which characterize good men, 
 some one, like a Penthesilca, is frequently seen more 
 prominent than the rest. In Professor Rush, that vir- 
 tue was benevolence. 
 
 It was benevolence that induced him to visit the 
 poor gratuitously; to leave often on their table, money 
 to procure them support, while he like the man of Ross, 
 
 " Prescribes, attends, the med'cine makes and gives." 
 
 Benevolence attached him to the worthy Abolition 
 Society of this city, for improving the condition of the 
 African race, to whose constitution his name is ap- 
 pended, of which, since August, 1803, he has been 
 unanimously chosen President at every annual elec- 
 tion, and whose funds have been increased by his be- 
 quests. It was this led him among the first of his fel- 
 low-citizens to design the African episcopal church, 
 and promote other similar establishments in the city. 
 Of this, the grateful Africans were sensible, who soli- 
 cited leave to walk to the grave before his body, hung 
 their pulpits in mourning, and delivered their unlet- 
 tered and affectionate eulogiums to his memory. It 
 was benevolence suggested his elegant Dream on the 
 Paradise of Negro Slaves. Benevolence inspired in his 
 mind, the ardors of a Howard, and urged him first 
 in the western world, to the attempt to alleviate 
 the miseries and lessen the crimes of prisons. It was 
 this constrained him to inquire into the effects of pub- 
 lic punishments on society, and into the consistency 
 of the punishment of murder by death, with reason 
 and revelation. It was benevolence dictated his inge- 
 nious plan of a peace office for the United States. 
 
31 
 
 Benevolence converted into pleasure his visits to yon- 
 der superb mansion of mercy, the Pennsylvania hos- 
 pital. It was this rendered the cell of the maniac the 
 seat of his humane observation, and prepared him to 
 offer to the world his immortal work on " the Diseases 
 " of the Mind." It was this, associated with his love 
 of order, that during the thirty years he was physician 
 to that excellent establishment, made him never ten 
 minutes absent at the hour of prescribing, unless sick- 
 ness obstructed. It was the spirit of benevolence 
 prompted him to offer information to Europeans dis- 
 posed to migrate to the United States. It was this 
 led him to exhibit as a pattern to his classes the hu- 
 manity of Boerhaave, who it is said in his attendance 
 upon the poor, discovered more solicitude and punctu- 
 ality than in his attendance upon his rich patients. 
 Asked by a friend his reason for so doing, he answered, 
 " I esteem the poor my most profitable patients, for 
 " God is their paymaster."* It was this conducted Dr. 
 Rush to the jail where lay confined for debt, a friend 
 to w T hose family in prosperity he had long been physi- 
 cian. He offered him his sympathies. He did more! 
 he introduced into his hand a body of bank notes, 
 amounting to more than the sums he had ever obtained 
 
 * Dr. Rush not only attended ministers of the gospel agreeably 
 to the beneficent habit of gentlemen of the medical profession, 
 without reward, but he ever exempted from charges nurses and 
 midwives. He considered them as the auxiliaries of physicians. 
 A fact deserves to be stated which has come to my knowledge 
 since the above address was delivered. Our deceased friend con- 
 scientiously devoted the emoluments which on a sabbath arose 
 from his services, exclusively to benevolent purposes. 
 
32 
 
 for his services. He insisted on his receiving it anc 
 departed, content with the approbation of him, who ir 
 the judgment will say, « I was in prison, and ye came 
 " unto me!" 
 
 Where shall I close the detail!-His task is done 
 He has bidden us adieu. He has ascended to receive 
 " the blessing, even life for evermore!" His sons 
 have caught his mantle! 
 
 Gentlemen, the Graduates and Students in Medicine, 
 of the University of Pennsylvania, 
 I respectfully beg of you, to copy your bright ex- 
 amplar. Imitate his habits of punctuality, his suavity 
 of manners, his accuracy of observation, his unwearied 
 perseverance. He saw, with Hippocrates, a physician's 
 embarrassments, vita brevis—ars longa, occasio ceteris, 
 expenmentum lubricum, judicium difficile, but he has 
 left you an example, how much can be effected by 
 patient labour. Read his three essays addressed to 
 gentlemen, entitled Sermons on Temperance and Ex- 
 ercise. You all loved him. May you imitate him in 
 the fear of God, and in benevolence to men! that when 
 you die, a grateful public may bedew your memory 
 with tears, such as have been shed at your instructor's 
 grave. 
 
 When the melancholy intelligence arrived, that the 
 hero and father of our country was no more, I remem- 
 ber to have heard a-,? officer, as he dropt the honest 
 tear, exclaim, - Weil, I rejoice I have been a soldier 
 " under Washington." With a like sensibility, me- 
 thinks I hear each of you utter, what you will often 
 repeat, " I rejoice I have been a pupil under Rush." 
 
 _8 My '13 
 
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