INTRODUCTION T the Time of His Death, in April I8I3, Benjamin Rush Was a at the Zenith of His Fame and Influence
INTRODUCTION T the time of his death, in April I8I3, Benjamin Rush was A at the zenith of his fame and influence. Long regarded by everyone except himself and perhaps a few other Philadelphians as the leading citizen of Philadelphia, the recipient of uncounted honors from his countrymen and from European courts and learned societies, Rush had achieved a reputation not surpassed by that of any other American physician for a century or more to come. If eulogists are to be distrusted, we have the testimony of a pupil, who was himself to become a great physician, writing a few months before his teacher died. In January I8IJ Charles D. Meigs re ported to his father in Georgia: "Dr. Rush looks like an angel of light, his words bear in them, and his looks too, irresistable per suasion and conviction :-in fact, to me he seems more than mortal. If ever a human being deserved Deification, it is Dr. Rush.m Rush's fame sprang from his own vigorous and magnetic person ality; from his substantial accomplishments in medicine, psychiatry, education, and social reform; from the great body of his published writings; from his gifts as a teacher and lecturer; and, finally, from the letters he wrote to scores of friends, relatives, patients, pupils, and colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic. In I 8 I 6 a former puyil, Dr. James Mease of Philadelphia, was happily inspired to gather and publish cca volume or more of the letters of my late friend Dr Rush to various persons on political, religious, and mis cellaneous subjects." For this purpose Mease solicited the aid of two of Rush's intimate correspondents, ex-Presidents Adams and Jefferson.
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