'I am too weak to visit Mr. Davis'
Rush had contracted the fever himself and was writing from bed when James Wharton asked him to see a patient. He could not go; he would send his pupil Fisher instead — but only if the patient dismissed Dr. Hodge, 'a Bark and Wine Doctor' whose prescriptions 'and mine are directly opposed to each other.'
Six words at the center of the letter contain the whole controversy of 1793: a dying physician, still fighting, refusing to cede a single patient to the opposition. It is the most important letter in the collection and the one most often asked to be seen.
Benjamin Rush ALS October 17, 1793
Rush writes to James Wharton from his sickbed: "I am too weak to visit Mr. Davis, having just revived from two attacks of my fever. If Mr. Davis will dismiss Dr. Hodge, Mr. Fisher my pupil shall attend him under my direction. Hodge is in a Bark and Wine Doctor. His prescriptions and mine are directly opposed to each other." This letter — six words at its center — is the entire controversy in miniature: a dying physician, still fighting, refusing to cede a single patient to the opposition.