Benjamin Rush

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Benjamin Rush

(born Jan. 4, 1746, Byberry, near Philadelphia, Pa. — died April 19, 1813, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) U.S. physician and political leader. He attended the College of New Jersey at Princeton. As a doctor, he was a dogmatic theorist who proposed that all diseases are fevers caused by overstimulation of blood vessels, with a simple remedy — bloodletting and purges. He advocated humane treatment for insane patients; his idea that insanity often had physical causes marked a significant advance. He wrote the first chemistry textbook and the first psychiatry treatise in the U.S. An early and active American patriot and a member of the Continental Congress, Rush drafted a resolution urging independence and signed the Declaration of Independence.

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Benjamin Rush was born in 1745 in Byberry, Pennsylvania, approximately twelve miles from Philadelphia, where he died in 1813. In 1761, Rush began a medical apprenticeship with a distinguished physician, Dr. John Redman in Philadelphia, and he completed his training at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied with William Cullen and was exposed to the philosophies of the Enlightenment. Upon obtaining his degree, Rush returned to Philadelphia in 1769 and became a professor of Chemistry at the College of Philadelphia's medical school, where he instructed approximately three thousand American students between 1779 and 1812. Being very determined to advance the human condition, Rush formed the first dispensary for medical relief for the poor in the United States. Later in his life, he focused on diseases of the mind. He approached mental illness as a disease as significant as those that attacked the body. While his theory of causation was representative of the limitations of medical theory of the time, his advocacy of humane facilities, his use of occupational therapy, and his belief that mental illness could be understood through systematic study have led him to become known as the father of American psychiatry.

At times, Rush found himself embroiled in controversy. During a yellow fever epidemic that raged through Philadelphia in 1793, Rush advocated numerous and generous bloodlettings, which many of his colleagues viewed as extreme and dangerous.

During the American Revolution, Rush served as surgeon general of the Continental army. He deplored the squalid conditions of the encampments and, undiplomatically, blamed George Washington for their condition. Rush advocated personal cleanliness, a better diet, and resisting the temptation of distilled liquors, accurately identifying the health-related hazards of whisky and gin. After the war, Rush led the campaign to tax whiskey and use the tax money to finance the new government of the United States.

Rush's seminal works include: A Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on Chemistry (1770); Directions for the Preserving the Health of Soldiers (1778); An Enquiry into the Effects of Spirituous Liquors upon the Human Body, and Their Influence upon the Happiness of Society (1784); and Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Disease of the Mind (1812).

Bibliography

Binger, C. (1966). Revolutionary Doctor Benjamin Rush, 1746–1813. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Farr, C. B. (1994). "Benjamin Rush and American Psychiatry." American Journal of Psychiatry 151(6):64–73.

King, L. S. (1991). Transformations in American Medicine: From Benjamin Rush to William Osler. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

— JENNIFER KOSLOW

Biography: Benjamin Rush

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Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), physician, patriot, and humanitarian, represented the epitome of the versatile, wide-ranging physician in America. He insisted on a theoretical structure for medical practice.

Benjamin Rush was born on Dec. 24, 1745, on a plantation at Byberry near Philadelphia. He graduated in 1760 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) and then studied medicine in Philadelphia until 1766. He completed his medical education at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Here he studied under many of the greatest medical teachers of the time, most notably William Cullen, proponent of the concept of rational rather than empirical medical systems. Rush received his doctorate in 1768, then returned to Philadelphia.

Rush practiced medicine and was soon made the first professor of chemistry in America at the College of Philadelphia. He joined the American Philosophical Society and became a permanent part of Philadelphia's scientific and medical circle, though his outspoken views made as many enemies as friends. In 1774 he helped organize the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and became an outspoken defender of American rights in the brewing quarrel with Great Britain. In 1775 Rush suggested that Thomas Paine write a tract in favor of American independence under the title Common Sense; Paine did and the pamphlet was very influential in turning public opinion toward independence. Rush continued to be active in the American independence movement, was a member of the Continental Congress, and signed the Declaration of Independence.

Appointed surgeon general of the armies of the Middle Department in 1777, Rush found the medical services disorganized and mounted an attack on William Shippen, the director general of medical services. When George Washington upheld Shippen, Rush resigned and resumed his medical practice. He began delivering lectures at the University of the State of Pennsylvania in 1780 and joined the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1783. By 1789 he was professor of theory and practice in the university. He became professor of the institutes of medicine and clinical practice in the University of Pennsylvania in 1792 and professor of theory and practice in 1796. From this base he developed a wide following.

Rush's great reputation as a teacher made him appear a more important innovator than he was. His major contribution was to introduce Cullen's concept of a rationally deduced medical system to replace empirical folk practice. He also supported the theory of John Brown of Edinburgh proposing a single cause for all disease - imbalance of the nervous energies. According to this theory, all illness was attributable to excesses or deficiencies in nervous energies; moderation in all things was the preventive medicine, but once illness occurred, either bleeding or purging was necessary. Rush was a zealot on bleeding and in extreme cases would remove as much as four-fifths of a patient's blood. His excesses in this brought much criticism, but his emphasis on moderation as a preventive was popular. He was thus led to advocate temperance, and he is sometimes regarded as the founder of the temperance movement in America.

Rush also became interested in the plight of the mentally ill and the poor, established the first free dispensary in the United States, and campaigned against public and capital punishment and for general penal reform. He also concerned himself with education, advocating education for women, less emphasis on classics and more on utilitarian subjects, and a national educational system capped by a national university. His ideas were behind the founding of Dickinson College in 1783.

The test of Rush's medical theories came during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. His initial theory that the epidemic was partly caused by poor sanitation resulted in ostracism by fellow physicians. Rush bravely stayed in Philadelphia to treat yellow fever victims, while many other medical men fled. His treatment was bleeding, and he was charged with causing many more deaths than he prevented. Although Rush held to his theory, he was either unwilling or simply unable to keep records so that the theory could be checked against fact. However, his published accounts of the epidemic, especially his suggestion that poor sanitation was an ultimate cause, attracted attention in Europe.

Rush also did pioneering work relating dentistry to physiology and was influential in founding veterinary medicine in America. Both fields had been considered beneath the dignity of the professional. His observations on the mentally ill seem to presage modern developments in psychoanalytic theory, especially his Medical Inquiries and Observations on the Diseases of the Mind (1812).

Rush's insistence on a rational, systematic body of knowledge for the medical profession certainly helped set the stage for the later medical revolution in America. He died in Philadelphia on April 19, 1813.

Life

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The birthplace of Benjamin Rush, photographed in 1959.

Rush was born to John Rush and Susanna Hall in the Township of Byberry in Philadelphia County, which was then about 14 miles outside Philadelphia. The township was incorporated into Philadelphia in 1854, and now remains one of its neighborhoods. His father died when he was six, and Rush spent most of his early life with his maternal uncle, the Reverend Samuel Finley. He attended Finley's academy at Nottingham which would later become West Nottingham Academy.

In 1760, at the age of 15, he completed the five-year program earning him a Bachelor of Arts degree at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), and then studied medicine under Dr. John Redman in Philadelphia. Redman encouraged him to further his studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he earned a medical degree. While in the United Kingdom practicing medicine, he learned French, Italian, and Spanish. Returning to the Colonies in 1769 (age 24), Rush opened a medical practice in Philadelphia and became Professor of Chemistry at the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania).

He published the first American textbook on chemistry, several volumes on medical student education, and wrote influential patriotic essays. He was active in the Sons of Liberty and was elected to attend the provincial conference to send delegates to the Continental Congress. He consulted Thomas Paine on the writing of the profoundly influential pro-independence pamphlet, Common Sense. He was appointed to represent Pennsylvania at the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence.

In 1777 he became surgeon-general of the middle department of the Continental Army. Conflicts with the Army Medical service, specifically with Dr. William Shippen, Jr., led to Rush's resignation in 1778.

As General George Washington suffered a series of defeats in the war, Rush campaigned for his removal, as part of the Conway Cabal, losing his trust and ending Rush's war activities. Rush later expressed regret for his actions against Washington. In a letter to John Adams in 1812, Rush wrote, "He [Washington] was the highly favored instrument whose patriotism and name contributed greatly to the establishment of the independence of the United States."

In 1783 he was appointed to the staff of Pennsylvania Hospital, of which he remained a member until his death.

He was elected to the Pennsylvania convention which adopted the Federal constitution and was appointed treasurer of the U.S. Mint, serving from 1797-1813.

He became Professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania in 1791, though the quality of his medicine was quite primitive even for the time: he advocated bleeding (for almost any illness) long after its practice had declined. He became a social activist, an abolitionist, and was the most well-known physician in America at the time of his death. He was also founder of the private liberal arts college Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1794, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Rush was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (known today as the Pennsylvania Prison Society^[3]), which greatly influenced the construction of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.

Corps of discovery

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia to prepare for the Lewis and Clark Expedition under the tutelage of Rush, who taught Lewis about frontier illnesses and the performance of bloodletting. Rush provided the corps with a medical kit that included:

Turkish opium for nervousness
emetics to induce vomiting
medicinal wine
fifty dozen of Dr. Rush's Bilious Pills, laxatives containing more than 50% mercury, which the corps called "thunderclappers". Their meat-rich diet and lack of clean water during the expedition gave the men cause to use them frequently. Though their efficacy is questionable, their high mercury content provided an excellent tracer by which archaeologists have been able to track the corps' actual route to the Pacific.

Abolitionism

In 1766 when Rush set out for his studies in Edinburgh, was outraged by the sight of 100 slave ships in Liverpool harbor.^[4] As a prominent Presbyterian doctor and professor of chemistry in Philadelphia, he provided a bold and respected voice against the slave trade that could not be ignored.

The highlight of his involvement in abolishing slavery might be the pamphlet he wrote that appeared in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York in 1773 entitled "An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, upon Slave-Keeping." In this first of his many attacks on the social evils of his day, he not only assailed the slave trade, but the entire institution of slavery. Dr. Rush argued scientifically that Negroes were not by nature intellectually or morally inferior. Any apparent evidence to the contrary was only the perverted expression of slavery, which "is so foreign to the human mind, that the moral faculties, as well as those of the understanding are debased, and rendered torpid by it."^{[citation needed]}

Contributions to medicine

Although anatomy was well understood in Rush's time, the causes of disease remained elusive. Doctors therefore relied on various unscientific treatments. Although Rush continued these practices, he actively sought new explanations and new approaches to treatment, some of which remain influential.

Physical medicine

Rush was a proponent of bloodletting^[5] and calomel therapy, treatments that were widespread in America at the time. In his report on the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, he wrote:

I have found bleeding to be useful, not only in cases where the pulse was full and quick, but where it was slow and tense. I have bled twice in many, and in one acute case four times, with the happiest effect. I consider intrepidity in the use of the lancet, at present, to be necessary, as it is in the use of mercury and jalap, in this insidious and ferocious disease.

Some contemporaries, notably William Cobbett, objected to Rush's extreme use of bloodletting. Cobbett accused Rush of killing more patients than he had saved. Rush sued Cobbett for libel, winning a judgment of $500.^[6]

Rush reviewed the case of Henry Moss, a slave who lost his dark skin color (probably through vitiligo). He proposed that being black was a hereditary skin disease, which he called "negroidism," and that it might be cured. Rush drew the conclusion that "Whites should not tyrannize over [blacks], for their disease should entitle them to a double portion of humanity. However, by the same token, whites should not intermarry with them, for this would tend to infect posterity with the 'disorder'... attempts must be made to cure the disease."^[7]

Rush wrote a descriptive account of the yellow fever epidemic that struck Philadelphia in 1793 (during which he treated up to 120 patients per day), and what is considered to be the first case report on dengue fever (published in 1789 on a case from 1780).^{[citation needed]}

Mental health

Dr. Benjamin Rush painted by Charles Willson Peale, 1783

Rush was far ahead of his time in the treatment of mental illness. In fact, he is considered the "Father of American Psychiatry", publishing the first textbook on the subject in the United States, Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind (1812).^[8] He undertook to classify different forms of mental illness and to theorize as to their causes and possible cures. Rush believed (incorrectly) that many mental illnesses were caused by disruptions of the blood circulation, and treated them with devices meant to improve circulation to the brain such as a restraining chair and a centrifugal spinning board.^[9] After seeing mental patients in appalling conditions in the Pennsylvania Hospital, Rush led a successful campaign in 1792 for the state to build a separate mental ward where the patients could be kept in more humane conditions.^[10]

Rush is sometimes considered a pioneer of occupational therapy particularly as it pertains to the institutionalized.^[11] In Diseases of the Mind Rush wrote:

"It has been remarked, that the maniacs of the male sex in all hospitals, who assist in cutting wood, making fires, and digging in a garden, and the females who are employed in washing, ironing, and scrubbing floors, often recover, while persons, whose rank exempts them from performing such services, languish away their lives within the walls of the hospital".

Furthermore, Rush was one of the first people to describe Savant Syndrome. In 1789 he described the abilities of Thomas Fuller, a lightning calculator. His observation would later be described in other individuals by notable scientists like John Langdon Down.^[12]

Rush pioneered the therapeutic approach to addiction.^[13]^[14] Prior to his work, drunkenness was viewed as being sinful and a matter of choice. Rush believed that the alcoholic loses control over himself and identified the properties of alcohol, rather than the alcoholic's choice, as the causal agent. He developed the conception of alcoholism as a form of medical disease and proposed that alcoholics should be weaned from their addiction via less potent substances.^[15]

Education

During his career, he educated over 3000 medical students, and several of these established Rush Medical College (Chicago) in his honor after his death. One of his last apprentices was Samuel A. Cartwright, later a Confederate States of America surgeon charged with improving sanitary conditions in the camps around Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana.^{[citation needed]} Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, formerly Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, was named in his honor.

Religious views and vision

He is generally deemed Presbyterian and was a founder of the Philadelphia Bible Society.^[16] He was an advocate for Christianity in public life and in education. In line with that, he advocated that the U.S. government require public schools to teach students using the Bible as a textbook, that the government furnish an American bible to every family at public expense and that the government require that the following sentence be inscribed in letters of gold over the door of every home in the United States: "The Son of Man Came into the World, Not To Destroy Men's Lives, But To Save Them." ^[17]^[18] He publicly advocated such government actions even after the ratification in 1791 of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ....."^[19]

His religious views were influenced around 1780 by what he described as "Fletcher's controversy with the Calvinists in favor of the Universality of the atonement." After hearing Elhanan Winchester preach, Rush indicated that Winchester's theology "embraced and reconciled my ancient calvinistical, and my newly adopted (Arminian) principles. From that time on I have never doubted upon the subject of the salvation of all men." Rush did believe, as did Winchester and most Universalists in a state of punishment after death for the wicked.

In his later years, Rush, in a letter to John Adams, described his religious views as "a compound of the orthodoxy and heterodoxy of most of our Christian churches."^[20]

He also helped Richard Allen in the founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Family

Benjamin Rush's great-great-grandfather, John Rush, came with his wife, Susannah (Lucas) Rush from England in 1683. Susannah Lucas was first cousin to William Penn who established Pennsylvania. Their mothers were sisters. Before the Revolutionary war, Rush was engaged to Sarah Eve, daughter of prominent Philadelphian, Captain Oswell Eve, Sr. Their wedding date was set for mid-December 1774. Unfortunately, Sarah became ill and died on 4 Dec 1774, 2 weeks before their intended date.

Rush married Julia Stockton (1759-1848), [daughter of Richard Stockton (another signer of the Declaration of Independence) and his wife Annis Boudinot Stockton] 11 Jan 1776. They had 13 children, 9 of whom survived their first year. Benjamin & Julia had: John, Ann Emily, Richard, Susannah (died as infant), Elizabeth Graeme (died as infant), Mary B, James, William (died as an infant), Benjamin (died as an infant), Benjamin, Julia, Samuel, William.

Ann Emily married the Honorable Ross Cuthbert; Richard Rush became an attorney and married Catherine Elizabeth Murray; Mary married Major Thomas Manners; James became a medical doctor and married Eugenia Frances Heister and Elizabeth Upshur Dennis; Benjamin did not marry, movied to New Orleans, LA; Julia married Henry Jonathon Williams Esquire; Samuel became an attorney and married Nancy Anne Wilmer; William became a doctor and married Elizabeth Fox Roberts.

Rush's eldest son, John, initially followed his father into medicine, then joined the navy. During his tour, a friend and fellow officer challenged him to a duel. John shot and killed the challenger and was soon consumed by feelings of guilt. When he returned home unable to care for himself, Rush placed him in the mental ward at the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he died 30 years later without having recovered.^[21]

Writings

Letters of Benjamin Rush, volume 1: 1761-1792 (1951), editor L.H. Butterfield, Princeton University Press
Essays: Literary, Moral, and Philosophical (1798) Philadelphia: Thomas & Samuel F. Bradford, 1989 reprint: Syracuse University Press, ISBN 0-912756-22-5, includes "A Plan of a Peace-Office for the United States"
The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush: His "Travels Through Life" Together with his Commonplace Book for 1789-1813, 1970 reprint: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-83713037-9
Medical Inquiries And Observations Upon The Diseases Of The Mind, 2006 reprint: Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 1-42862669-7
The Spur of Fame: Dialogues of John Adams and Benjamin Rush, 1805-1813 (2001), Liberty Fund, ISBN 0-86597287-7
Benjamin Rush, M.D: A Bibliographic Guide (1996), Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-31329823-8
An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, Upon Slave-keeping. Philadelphia: Printed by J. Dunlap, 1773.

Buried

He is buried in the Christ Church graveyard in Philadelphia, not far from where Benjamin Franklin is buried.

Notes

^ ""Two Pieces of Homespun" (Memory): American Treasures of the Library of Congress". The Library of Congress. 2002-11-22. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm136.html. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
^ McCullough, David (2001). John Adams. Simon and Schuster. pp. 599-603. ISBN 0684813637.
^ "The Prison Society – About Us". The Pennsylvania Prison Society. http://www.prisonsociety.org/about/index.shtml. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
^ "Dr. Benjamin Rush and the Negro", Donald J. D'Elia, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1969), pp. 413-422, doi:10.2307/2708566 University of Pennsylvania Press
^ Rush, Benjamin (1815). "A Defence of Blood-letting, as a Remedy for Certain Diseases". Medical Inquiries and Observations 4. http://www.geocities.com/bobarnebeck/defence.html. Retrieved 2008-05-15.
^ Fruchtman, Jack (2005). Atlantic Cousins: Benjamin Franklin and His Visionary Friends. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.
^ Rush, Benjamin (1799). "Observations Intended to Favour a Supposition That the Black Color (As It Is Called) of the Negroes Is Derived from the Leprosy". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 4.
^ Hellemans, Alexander; Bryan Bunch (1988). The Timetables of Science. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 261. ISBN 0671621300.
^ Beam, Alex (2001). Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital.
^ Deutsch, Albert (2007). The Mentally Ill in America: A History of Their Care and Treatment From Colonial Times.
^ Brodsky, Alyn (2004). Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician.
^ http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_syndrome/overview_of_savant_syndrome/synopsis
^ Elster, Jon (1999), Strong Feelings: Emotion, Addiction, and Human Behavior, MIT Press, pp. 131, ISBN 0262550369, http://books.google.com/books?id=63_19D3jPDgC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=%22benjamin+rush%22+%22harry+levine%22&source=web&ots=07lL1cEmUy&sig=RjpGoGVvj0Dk8IQkx9tODaQGQLk
^ Durrant, Russil; Jo Thakker (2003). Substance Use & Abuse: Cultural and Historical Perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
^ Rush, Benjamin (1805). Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind. Philadelphia: Bartam.
^ Benjamin Rush, Signer of Declaration of Independence
^ "Signers of the Declaration (Benjamin Rush)". U. S. National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/declaration/bio42.htm. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
^ A Plan of a Peace-Office for the United States in Runes, Dagobert D., The Selected Writings of Benjamin Rush, Philosphical Library, New York, p. 19. Published by READ BOOKS, 2008 ISBN 1443731080 in Google Books Accessed April 27, 2009.
^ Amendment 1 of the United States Constitution in official website of the U.S. National Archives Accessed April 15, 2009.
^ Benjamin Rush. Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Accessed Nov. 25, 2007.
^ Landsman, Ned C. (2001). Nation and Province in the First British Empire. Bucknell University Press.

Sources

Levine, Harry G. "The Discovery of Addiction: Changing Conceptions of Habitual Drunkenness in America." Journal of Studies on Alcohol. 1978; 15: pp: 493-506. Also available at: http://www.soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/levine/doa.htm

External links

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1773	An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America, Upon Slave-Keeping. In a biting attack on the slave trade and the entire institution of slavery, Rush, the Philadelphia-born physician, public official, and writer who suggested to Thomas Paine the writing of Common Sense, combines the philosophy of natural rights with the ideas of the Great Awakening.
1778	Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers: Recommended to the Consideration of the Officers in the Army of the United States of America. Rush, the surgeon general of the Middle Department of the army during the Revolution, is outraged by the conditions he uncovers in army hospitals. His attempt to remedy this situation through director general Dr. Shippen (his former teacher) fails. General George Washington refers Rush's protest to Congress, which rules in favor of Shippen. Rush resigns his commission. His recommendations are published in this tract.
1787	Thoughts Upon Female Education, Accommodated to the Present State of Society, Manners, and Government in the United States of America. Rush increasingly sees the need for a variety of social reforms. The education of women is just one on his list, which also includes better treatment of prisoners and abolition. Rush is one of the first civic leaders to promote free public education funded by a property tax in Philadelphia, believing "a republican nation can never be long free and happy" without an educated population.
1789	Medical Inquiries and Observations. The first of five volumes is a collection of the physician's medical papers on topics ranging from smallpox to the effect of alcohol on the aging process. These essays gain Rush admittance into the American Philosophical Society.
1792	Considerations on the Injustice and Impolicy of Punishing Murder by Death. An argument against capital punishment, which contends that the death penalty increases criminal behavior and amounts to state-assisted suicide. Rush also asserts that crime stems from a mental disease. First outlined in an essay in the July 1788 American Museum, Rush's beliefs had received harsh criticism and prompted him to add material and publish it in book form in 1792 and then again in a book of his essays in 1798, under the title "An Enquiry Into the Consistency of the Punishment of Murder by Death." Rush's writings had won support from Benjamin Franklin and Philadelphia attorney general William Bradford.
1812	Medical Inquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind. Rush's most famous work is one of the earliest significant American works on psychiatry and suggests some understanding of what would become the theories of psychoanalysis. The book would be reprinted four times by 1835. The first American physician to win literary acclaim, Rush was hailed "the father of American psychiatry."