arship of Byberry, abou on the twenty-fourth elmut six years of age, the tbrother devolved solely and netivity appear to cation, or to have left at of thang Rush was to proation to which the Bmited ete, she removed to the city do sons commercial business, rid economy; fo sucHa taught him herself the od him at the age of nine team, in Maryland, at that ushand, the Rev. Dr. Findwe of Princeton in New Jersey. s of the dead languages. to Princeton College, then him, in proof of his arguments, were extremely bold and adventurous. His reasoning itself displayed abilities, rare even among the pupils of that celebrated school. The style was correct and elegant; Dr. Ramsay, who was among the best classical scholars of our country, and who knew Dr. Rush well, says of this thesis, that it was "written in classical Latin;" and adds, "I have reason to believe without the help of a grinder, for it bears the characteristic marks of the peculiar style of its author." During his residence at Edinburgh, Dr. Rush was commissioned to negotiate with Dr. Witherspoon of Paisley, in Scotland, his acceptance of the presidency of Princeton College: he had declined this office, to which he had been appointed by the trustees, and it is in some degree to the address of Dr. Rush, that the accomplishment of this event is ascribed; an event which procured him an invaluable friend throughout life, conferred honour upon the seminary to which he owed his instruction, and contributed in no small degree to the advancement of the literature and science of our country. From Edinburgh Dr. Rush visited London, where he passed the winter of 1768, in attendance upon the hospitals and medical lectures of that metropolis. The succeeding summer he spent with great advantage in Paris, and returned in the autumn of 1769 to bis native country. Thus qualified, he fixed his residence in the city of Philadelphia, and entered upon the career of his profession; in which he had to encounter, at the outset, a competition with physicians of a long established reputation. By the affability of his manners, he was soon considered in Philadelphia as the ornament and delight of all the companies he frequented, and was regarded with extreme partiality and admiration; all which contributed greatly to his professional reputation and success. But that which is said more especially to have influenced the public opinion in his favour, was the affectionate and disinterested zeal, which, on all occasions, he manifested for the welfare of his patients; cheering their spirits with sprightly conversation; or soothing their apprehensions; and visiting, with indiscriminate attention, the palace of opulence and the hut of poverty. But notwithstanding this gentleness of manner, Dr. Rush was not the less distinguished for boldness and intrepidity of experiment. "His mildness to his patients," says one of his biographers, "was in no case extended to the diseases he had to combat. To these he was stern, inexorable, and deadly." The prosperous course of Dr. Rush's practice was not interrupted by any memorable event, nor diversified by any adventure very worthy of relation, until the breaking out of the yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793, which exhibits the most busy scene of his professional life, and one in which he acquired his most conspicuous reputation. This disease had appeared in Philadelphia in 1762, and now returned after a lapse of thirty-one years, with unexampled malignity. War and famine have seldom presented a scene of more complicated horror. The city presented every where the image of desolation. For nearly two months, scarcely an individual was seen upon the streets, unless engaged in some melancholy office; seeking aid for the sick, or conducting the dead to their place of interment; and no other sound but that of the hearse, or the vehicle of the physician, interrupted the frightful solitude. In a populous city, where men are accustomed to witness the bustle of multitudes and the activities of business, the absence of such objects necessarily fills the mind with the most painful or melancholy sensations. The magnanimous conduct of Dr. Rush in this emergency, his devotion to his profession, and total disregard of personal safety, have entitled him to the unceasing gratitude and admiration of his countrymen. To use the words of the celebrated Zimmerman, "sa conduite a merité que non seulement la ville de Philadelphie, mais que l'humanité entière lui clève une statue." During the fiercest rage of the disease, nearly all the physicians disappeared from the city; either having sought safety by flight into the country, or having perished in the indiscriminate mortality. At one time, when not less than six thousand persons were prostrate in the disease, three practitioners only remained to supply their necessities. The labours of Rush, in this emergency, were without remission, and he certainly accomplished difficulties, and sustained fatigues, to which the powers of life, under ordinary excitement, or with ordinary courage, had proved wholly inadequate. From the eighth to the fifteenth of September, he visited and prescribed for about one hundred and twenty patients per day. For several weeks his house, at all hours of the day and night, was filled, and sometimes surrounded, by multitudes imploring his assistance. To these he prescribed during the intervals of his visits, using the help of three of his pupils, who resided for this purpose in his family; employing them either in putting up medicine, in bleeding, or in visiting the sick. But although he devoted even the hurried periods of |