Writing to his former student at the University of Pennsylvania, the Declaration signer advised a continuous pursuit of knowledge. A fantastic letter that contains references to many of Rush's main teaching and theories of medicine. It also alludes to Yellow Fever, and discussed his oldest son, who would later live his life in the psychiatric ward of Pennsylvania Hospital.
From Catalog I
Rush writes to Dr. John McClelland during the 1798 epidemic: advising continued study, announcing his forthcoming fifth volume, reporting his efforts to secure McClelland a military appointment. He mentions his eldest son serving as a ship's surgeon -- the son who would later spend years in the Pennsylvania Hospital psychiatric ward, one of the most painful ironies in the life of the physician who wrote America's first treatise on mental illness.
Accession
BR-2026.002
Date
August 2, 1798
Author / maker
Rush, Benjamin
Condition
Housed in custom leather and cloth folder.
Notes
In Rush's autobiography he uses this phrase when considering his ideas of why he began to disagree with Cullen's medical theories: " "I read, I thought, and I observed upon the phenomena of diseases, but for a while without discovering an thing that satisfied me. At length a few rays f light broke in upon my mind upon several diseases. These were communicated first to my pupils, in my lectures, and afterwards t the public, in a volume of observations and inquiries in the year 1786." (Mistaken as it was published 1789)
